Children of the Cosmos
by Kuragari1024
Summary: A young woman comes to District 9 to become a shop owner; but ends up becoming a savior.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer – Don't own District 9, or any of the characters or concepts therein, except for my original ones, of course.**

**This story mostly takes place away from the plot of the movie. The characters are mostly mine, but some cameos may be made.**

**Chapter 1**

**In Which Kai Validus Is Introduced and Finds Out That Her Sense of Direction Isn't So Good; Leading To an Expensive Cab Ride and an Interesting Conversation**

The early morning sun shone down on the massive slum that was District 9. The roofs of the many shacks and assorted other buildings turned blistering hot in the light, making the heat an almost tangible entity. The dust of the streets swirled in the wake of the wind that blew halfheartedly through the place, carrying the scent of garbage and despair to all who smelt it.

Here and there among the old buildings and piles of rubbish, the District's residents could be seen stirring. They were already up, mulling about aimlessly, as they had done the day before, and would do tomorrow. The creatures sat or squatted on the ground or roamed around the place, picking listlessly at the occasional pile of filth. Though there were a great many of them the only noise that could be heard was the occasional sigh or chirp; it was as if the soul of the place had died long before the residents.

Kai Validus walked down the dirty street, looking around as though unsure that she should be there. The residents looked up at her from time to time, clicking curiously at the sight of an unarmed human among them. They were probably used to seeing fully armed MNU agents in full body armor, and the sight of a lone, relatively unarmed human walking around their neighborhood probably confused them a little.

They were mostly a sandy color, but some were darker, or had tints of red, green or black in their carapaces. They looked a bit like giant grasshoppers, which made Kai wonder how people had gotten the term "prawn" in the first place. The correct term for them was "Poleepkwa", but Kai just called them "nonhumans", "off-worlders", or "aliens". She was wondering offhandedly if they could use their legs to make the chirping sound that crickets and grasshoppers made, when a movement in front of her made her look up.

A large Poleepkwa had jumped out in front of her, making her jump. He was about seven feet tall, with a dark brown exoskeleton. He was, like all his species, humanoid in appearance, but with a few subtle differences. For one, he had two sets of antennae on his head; one long pair and a second, smaller pair. He had large amber eyes, and the typical array of tendrils covering his mouth. An interesting thing about Poleepkwa was their secondary pair of arms, which they usually kept tucked into their chests. They also had very thin waists, and long, powerful legs, which this one had used to hop in front of her with a loud thud and a small cloud of dust.

He was obviously irritated, for he had taken a fighting stance, and his mouthparts were trembling the way they did when Poleepkwa were agitated.

"**What do you here, human?"** he hissed, antennae waving.

Unlike a lot of humans, Kai could understand this odd assortment of vocalizations quite well, thanks to the two semesters of Poleepkwa language classes she had taken at college. There was no way the school would allow any nonhuman to enter the premises, but they did allow for the class to be taught via satellite from District 9. Kai remembered her teacher's cheerful demeanor, even though a pair of heavily armed MNU soldiers could clearly be seen in the background. She had excelled in all her classes, but that one was by far her favorite. It had been an elective, and she was one of only four students who had taken it. Now she was extremely glad of it; she could get herself out of situations without violence or the need for a translator, whom she didn't really trust.

"Don't mind me; I'm just looking for **Gebeuren…" Kai said, a little nervous. She was quite proficient in martial arts, but if this guy decided to call a few of his buddies…**

"What business do you have there? Gong to help keep us prawns in check? Aren't there enough MNU here already?"** he growled, taking a couple of steps forward.**

The Gebeuren (from the Dutch word for "opportunity") Sector was a small portion of District 9 that was reserved for the Poleepkwa that had earned a little real money. It had been founded in the late 1990s by a group of Dutch charity workers to help out the nonhumans. They'd made a deal with the MNU that cost about ten million U.S. dollars, and started the one-and-a-half acre section of District 9. The MNU had allowed this because of a growing movement of people concerned with Poleepkwa rights, and had wanted to appear sympathetic.

The nonhumans were allowed to live in the Gebeuren; provided that they unquestioningly follow very strict guidelines set up by the MNU. It was basically like a suburb run by a militant Home Owners Association. The perks were that there was far less crime, due to the MNU's constant patrolling of the area, and an opportunity to live a slightly better life than they otherwise would. Only Poleepkwa who had earned enough money to actually buy one of the small houses were permitted to live in Gebeuren. Some of the houses were even rumored to have running water and electricity, but only the extremely "wealthy" could afford to live in those. They also had to maintain their jobs, and pay a monthly "security fee" to the MNU for "keeping the peace". This was all Kai really knew about the place; except that it had a very small population.

"Hey! Do I _look_ like MNU to you?" the human retorted, getting a little fed up with the stranger's attitude.

He stepped back and looked at her more carefully. She was about five eleven, with short black hair put up to keep it out of her face, dark black eyes, fair skin, and a slender–but muscular–build. She was wearing a grey tank top under a faded denim work shirt and faded black jean shorts. She was wearing black combat boots, and carried a leather backpack in one hand; far from the guys in helmets and body armor who carried machine guns with them into the bathroom that the Poleepkwa was used to.

"**I suppose you're not…nor are you one of **_**them**_**."** he gestured across the street, to where a tired-looking woman in a faded and dirty green dress was leading a Poleepkwa into the darkness of an alley; a District 9 prostitute. Looking around, she saw a couple of more of them; one was wearing a tattered blue tube top and patched mini skirt, and was leaning against a nearby wall. The other was wearing a dirty black tank top and long pink skirt, and had a ratty feather boa around her neck. The one in the boa was chatting up a tall, rust-colored Poleepkwa, but was rebuffed, as he went over to the one in the tube top. One of the girls appeared to be no more than fifteen.

Kai had heard that there was a thriving interspecies sex market going on here, but she hadn't expected it to be so out in the open. She knew from studying the local laws that sex with a nonhuman could mean a hefty fine and perhaps prison time if caught.

"Damn right! So, can you tell be where Gebeuren is? I came in through the east entrance, so…"

"**You're lost. This is, as you can see, clearly **_**not**_** Gebeuren. You came in through the east entrance, but Gebeuren is west of here. I suggest that you turn around, catch a vehicle to the West entrance, and go in through there. You'll likely find more than a few MNU agents who are willing to tell you where to go from there. Now go; some of the Poleepkwa around here aren't **_**nearly**_** as charming as I am."** with this, he turned around and went into a small shack.

Kai was about to say something else, but the sight of some nearby Poleepkwa giving her funny looks caused her to quickly turn around and retrace her steps.

Fifteen minutes later, she was back at the east entrance to the District, talking with the driver of a hailed cab about the price of driving her to the other entrance.

"Come on, girl! I ain't got all day!" he said, in a heavy South African accent. He was heavy-set, middle-aged African man with a smelly cigar in one hand and a raggedy map of the area in another.

"All I'm asking is if it really costs that much for you to take me to the west entrance. I know gas is expensive, but come _on_, man!" she said, getting frustrated.

"Gas ain't the problem, girl! You want me to drive my cab through a sea of prawns, gangs and MNU! Not to mention the fact that we're probably going to be flagged down by at least one of those District whores. If you wanna go to the city, it'll cost you 50 Rand, you wanna go to the suburbs, it'll be 75; you wanna go to the other side of this hellhole, it'll be 500. Now, are you going or not?" he asked, flicking some ashes out of his window.

"Fine…" she said in defeat, counting out the money. Luckily, US currency could be easily converted to Rand, and she had a lot of it to convert.

"Okay; hop in back and keep quiet. These MNU bastards are always looking for an excuse to push people around. They can be black, white, prawn, rich, poor… Fuckers think they're better than all of us. Oh, pardon the language." he said, on an afterthought.

"It's cool… You get many people wanting rides to and from the District?" she asked, trying to evade the quiet that was settling in.

"Not really… Every now and then I get some tourist who wants to see prawns close up or some group of college hippies wanting to protest the MNU. Either way, I usually end up having to pick 'em up after a couple of hours."

"Oh?" Kai said, interested.

"Yeah; the tourists get chewed out by the MNU guys and the hippies get thrown out or hosed. The hippies piss me off the most–pardon the language–because they get hosed down and smell like wet trash. I mean, the prawns smell like trash, too; but they can't help that. These whiney kids come all the way over here and pretend to care about the prawns, but at the end of the day, they go back to their clean hotels and expensive coffee houses and think about what a good job they did by giving a prawn a blanket. They ain't changed nothing for the prawns and never will. They march around in front of the gates with their signs and slogans, and all they do is make things worse for everyone. Do the MNU guys do much to the hippies? No! They may hose 'em every now and again, but that's usually it. They beat the shit out of the prawns, though; I seen it! Prawns are just standing there, watching, and the MNU round 'em up and beat 'em…said they were planning a riot… Gotta feel sorry for 'em, really… Why are you going, anyway? Gonna protest in the District?" he asked, glancing at Kai from the cracked mirror.

"Nah… Gonna open up a store there!" Kai replied.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer – Don't own District 9. My original characters are mine, of course.**

**Please review this chapter!**

**Chapter 2**

**In which Kai and Bongani talk some more and finally arrive in the Gebeuren**

"WHAT?!" the cab driver yelled, almost crashing into a nearby vehicle, the driver of which screamed curses in several different languages.

"Yeah; gonna open a store in the District." Kai said, making sure that her seat belt was properly buckled.

"Why the hell would you want to open a store in prawn town? Are you insane or stupid?" the driver asked, looking at her in the mirror.

"Crazy. But seriously; I want to help the Poleepkwa out, so I'm opening a store that hires them."

"You must be crazy… The MNU don't like shops serving prawns; let alone hiring them. You're begging for trouble."

"Probably… Hey, what's your name?" Kai asked, wanting to change the subject. Pretty much everyone back home said that she was insane for coming all the way to Africa just to open up a little shop in the middle of District 9. She liked to think of it as broadening her horizons. There were people who helped starving and impoverished humans, but far fewer found it pertinent to help the Poleepkwa. Maybe it was because people were afraid of their strength, or because their weapons wouldn't work for humans, which gave them an advantage…maybe it was simply that Poleepkwa didn't look cute on commercials for charities… Whatever the reason, people just weren't too enthusiastic about helping the nonhumans.

"It's Bongani; Napoleon Bongani. I work for the South African branch of the Happy Travels Cab Company…let us ferry you to adventure… he said the last part with false enthusiasm.

"What?" Kai said, and Bongani laughed at the sight of her raising her eyebrows.

"Sorry; I have to say that, or they give me a speech on how we need to keep our customers happy…and traveling…"

"Sounds like hell…" the young woman said flatly.

"It is; but it's paradise compared to where you'll be working!" he replied, flicking some ashes out of the open window.

"But I'm going to be working in the Gebeuren; it's the nice part of the District." Kai protested, a little confused.

"Yeah, kind of…the prawns are well-behaved; but that's because the MNU come down hard there. You won't find any gangs or District whores there; but you'll find a hell of a lot more MNU enforcers. You'll notice that the hippies go to protest the MNU in the place where they're more present than any other. You won't find many of those college kids with poster board signs and guitars in the center of the District where all the really bad stuff goes on. You may get some missionaries with a real desire to reach Heaven pretty quick in the slums, though." he said, on an afterthought.

"Is that why you're going there? No worries about crazy prawns and crazier gangsters? If you want to help the prawns, why not go to where they really need it? You're not like those hippies are you? You know; talking about changing the world, but not doing anything about the real problems?" he asked a moment later.

"Well, that's an interesting story. You see, my dad's the one who got me my store; but only after six months of convincing. He actually gave in after three; but only if I agreed to work in the safest part of the District." Kai explained.

"So, what about the other three months?"

"That was spent filling out MNU paperwork, meeting with some of their officials, swimming through a sea of red tape, getting building permits, licenses, arranging for companies to stock the place, getting housing arrangements… All kinds of craziness; thank God it's over! I just have to keep on the good side of the MNU…wish me luck on that one!"

"Done… So, who are you going to hire?" Bongani asked.

"Anyone who I feel is qualified."

"Even the prawns?"

"Sure; if they're qualified to do the job." Kai replied. She'd had to fill out an extra mountain of paperwork to be allowed to hire Poleepkwa; and she was sure that some of her father's money had changed hands to help things along.

"Once again; you're crazy…but you're doing more than the hippies. I'm sure the prawn could use jobs; I hear living in the Gebeuren is expensive…at least by prawn standards."

"You heard right. I think I can do some good for the Nonhumans, though…"

"Nonhumans?" Bongani asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Poleepkwa; my friends and I call them Nonhumans for short. It's better than "prawn"; that's kind of a slur."

"Well, you call them whatever you want; they'll always be prawns to me. I don't mind them, really; I can kind of understand their situation…but they're just so weird. You're always seeing on the news about how they're finding prawn weapons and stuff…all the crime in the District… People are afraid of them; it's understandable, isn't it?"

"It is; but they're driven to such things by desperation and poverty. Humans will do the same things, under the same circumstances. I want to show the Nonhumans that not all humans are assholes." Kai said, matter-of-factly.

"Not all; but most of them are. And you'll find that out soon enough; we're at the east gate." Bongani said, pulling to a stop.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer - Don't own District 9; just my original characters.**

**Would someone PLEASE review!**

Chapter 3

**In which Kai meets a security guard and goes through a lot of legal crap. She will get to the District soon, though…**

"Crap…" Kai said, looking up at the gate.

The gate was about twenty five feet tall, and made out of thick steel. On the gate were the words "Welcome to Gebeuren"; printed in peeling black letters. For a brief moment, Kai remembered the pictures of the gates of concentration camps in her history textbooks, and shivered. The fence around the place was made of thick metal, like the gate; and looked as though it had once been painted in cheerful colors, but now the paint was faded and chipping. A mural on the gate showed the silhouette of a human and a Poleepkwa holding a star high in the air; Kai scoffed this, feeling a sudden pang of sadness for some reason.

On either side of the gate, two tall guard towers projected up ten feet above the surrounding barrier. Kai could plainly see two stern-faced snipers in MNU bulletproof vests were poised to pick off anyone who got out of line. She'd have bet a year's tuition that their guns had been responsible for ending a few Poleepkwa–and perhaps human?–lives.

There was a little booth outside of the fence, in which a thin MNU agent in a faded blue uniform and bulletproof vest was sleeping. He probably was there to make sure that no one got in or out of the District without the proper authorization.

"Good luck, crazy girl… What's your name? You asked me mine." Bongani asked, on an afterthought.

"It's Kai; Kai Validus." Kai replied.

"Validus? Like the big shot business man with the huge companies? He's bigger than MNU, you know; but I hear he's not a jerk, though…"

"He's my dad." Kai replied, digging in her pocket to show Bongani the picture in her wallet.

The picture showed Kai and her father, Elric, at a museum; a suit of samurai armor and a few swords in the background.

"Wow… He's your dad, huh? Why aren't you taking a limo, then? And why are you going to be working in prawn town?" Bongani asked.

"Yes, he's my dad, I don't like to ride in limos, and I like Poleepkwa." Kai replied, taking her wallet back.

"Well, good luck, crazy rich girl; be sure to talk to that guy in the booth, or you can't get into prawn town." Napoleon Bongani said, then gave a little wave as he drove off. Kai looked at Bongani's cab, making sure she got the number on the side of it.

"_Cab No. 1024… I'll remember that…"_ she thought.

Kai sighed, and looked back up at the gate. Adjusting her backpack, she pushed some hair out of her eyes and headed to the small security booth.

Drawing closer, she wondered why there was just this one little booth. Even if this was the best part of the District, there still should be more security than this one guy and the snipers…

When she got up to the booth, she stood there for a moment, pondering what to do.

"To hell with it." she muttered, then knocked on the bulletproof glass surrounding the top portion of the booth.

The security guard jolted awake, grabbed his gun, and horridly looked around for the cause of the noise. He seemed to relax when he saw Kai standing there, waving slowly at him.

"Oh, Christ… I thought you were a prawn…" he breathed a sigh of relief as he put his gun away, then regained his composure.

"Who are you and what are you doing here? Are you some tourist? Don't you know what this place is?" he fired off his questions in a harsh tone, made somewhat less threatening by the fact that he had what looked like half of some kind of pastry on the front of his uniform; a couple of flies were buzzing around it.

"I'm Kai Validus, I'm here to open my store, I'm not a tourist, and yes, I know what this place is." Kai replied, counting off the questions on her fingers, putting the middle one down last.

The guard didn't seem to see this, and picked the pastry off his shirt, before taking a bite of it. Kai shuddered in disgust.

"You got the papers for a store? You can't just show up here, you know… If that's what you thought, you've wasted your time and a lot of money for the air fare…"

"Yeah, I got papers; direct from the MNU big shots themselves…" Kai replied, digging in her backpack and producing a thick packet of official-looking documents in various colors.

"Watch what you say about MNU; you're here because we let you be here." the guard growled, taking another bite of his pastry. Kai said nothing, but handed him the documents through a small slot in the glass.

The guard took the documents and thumbed through them haphazardly. Kai waited patiently, watching pair of dogs fight over an old sneaker. The sun was getting higher in the sky, and Kai was beginning to sweat through her clothes. She looked almost longingly on the little fan in the glass booth, which was creeping around at a snail's pace.

Finally, the guard seemed to finish looking over the documents and handed them back to Kai, who was grateful that he didn't leave any jelly-covered fingerprints on them.

"So, you're Kai Validus? I'm gonna need some verification of that. Do you have a driver's license or something?"

"Yeah, here's my driver's license…and my lawyer said I should bring my birth certificate, too…" Kai said, handing over said documents, which the guard looked at. He then picked up a phone and dialed a number.

"Yes, this is Peters, and the Gebeuren gate… There's a girl here who says she's here to open a shop in the District… Yeah, Validus; Kai Validus… 'Bout five foot nine, black hair, skinny, yeah… Oh, _that_ Validus, eh? Yeah, she's got all the papers… Form 47-A, 10-C, housing permit, yes, yes; the waver? No; she doesn't have that… You'll send it over? A lawyer? Her lawyer? She's a kid; how does she have a- Her dad, right… What's his number? Fine…yeah, thanks…" he hung up.

"Okay, looks like everything's in order; except your liability waver." the guard-Peters-said, handing her back her license and birth certificate.

"Liability waver?" Kai repeated.

"Yeah…it's this form that says that you and/or your family won't sue MNU if you're hurt or something…"

"And the lawyer?"

"Oh, you've gotta sign the thing in front of a lawyer…"

"Well, I can get hold of my lawyer fairly easily…" Kai said, taking a laptop from her bag. Setting the machine on the booth's little desk, she arranged a little web cam to sit on the top of the computer's monitor, then typed for a couple of minutes. In a moment, a youthful Japanese woman in a scarlet business suit came onscreen, apparently in the middle of organizing some paperwork.

The woman was named Lily Yamamoto, and she had been Kai's primary lawyer and representative since the younger woman was twelve. She'd been friends with Kai's father for years, and had jumped at the chance to represent his daughter.

"Lily? This is Kai Validus; we've got a problem in District 9…" Kai said, and the woman looked up.

"Problem, Miss Validus? Let's see if I can remedy that…" the woman said in an authoritative tone.

"Okay, you can talk to this guy…" Kai said, then turned the computer and camera around to face Peters.

"Who are you?" Lily asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Frank Peters; I guard the east entrance to District 9's Gebeuren sector–" he began, but was stopped mid-sentence by a wave of the lawyer's hand.

"That's nice; what's the problem?"

"Well, this girl needs to sign a liability waver in order to open up her store in the District…" Peters' voice trailed off.

"And?"

"And she needs a lawyer present…" Peters said, looking off to the side.

"Will it count if I'm watching via satellite?" Lily asked, stapling a stack of papers and putting it into a tray.

"I suppose…"

"Do you have a waver on you, or can you get one in the near future? I will remind you that MNU did not inform my client that she needed a liability waver, so any incident that may have occurred would have been the fault of you and your company, Mr. Peters." Lily said sternly.

"Uh, right… They just sent me the form… Now, Miss Validus, if you'll sign this, you can go to into the District and start up your store…" Peters said, as a dull screech announced that his printer was doing its job. Kai looked at the paper, before looking at her lawyer.

"Hey, Lily; do you need to see this? There's some legal stuff here I don't get…" Kai said.

"I've taught you well… Hey, do you have a fax machine in that booth, Mr. Peters?" Lily asked, looking back to the guard, who looked to be getting more and more nervous by the minute.

"Y-yeah… I'll just need your number…" Peters stammered, taking the paper back and putting it in an old and dusty fax machine.

Lily gave him the number, and soon there was the loud cranking of the machine working. A few minutes later, a secretary brought Lily the paper, and she looked over it.

"Okay, Kai, it looks to be pretty straightforward. Basically, if you get hurt because of something the members of MNU do, you can sue them, but if it's because of an act of the Poleepkwa, gangs, or nature, you've got no case…we'll see what we can do about that later on… Go ahead and sign it, and have the guard send me a copy. I'll put it in your file."

Kai signed and dated the form in the places indicated, and had Peters send a copy to Lily, who put it away.

"Okay then, looks like everything's in order; I already have copies of the rest of your papers… I'll be contacting MNU and your father about not getting the waver to you sooner… Good luck with your store, Kai…" Lily said, but Peters spoke up before she terminated the communication.

"Uhm, before you go, do you need to sign anything validating that you were here? They didn't say anything about it, but I'm sure there's something about it in the manual…"

"Don't worry; I'm recording this conversation." Lily said, then terminated the transmission.

"Right then… I've got the waver, and you may now enter the District, Miss Validus…" Peters said, and reached over and pressed a button. The gates began to move with a loud noise, and Kai stepped back, even though there was no danger of being struck by the massive slabs of steel.

"You can go on ahead now. There's an intercom on the other side of the wall for when you need to get out of the District. Remember; only humans are allowed outside of the District unless they have a pass approved three days in advance by an authorized MNU official, along with three witnesses to the signing of said day pass. Copies of the pass must be sent to the MNU Records Office within two days of signing, or the pass will be voided. Any nonhumans that you bring outside of the District must be back in the time allotted on the pass. If said nonhumans are not back in the time allotted, they will be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which they find themselves. If you aid or know of a nonhuman keeping weapons or other dangerous items, you are legally obligated to inform the MNU as soon as possible. If you are caught aiding a nonhuman in attempting to escape the authorities or the MNU, you will be subject to the full authority of the state and the MNU's Legal Division. It's all here in these papers…" Peters read off, and handed a large packet of papers to Kai, who resigned herself to send copies to Lily.

"All right, you can go on through." Peters said, and Kai walked forward, and took her first step through the gate that separated the human world from that of District 9.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer – Don't own District 9 or Bleach; just my original characters.**

**Hail Kuragari1024; Queen of the Long-Ass Paragraph!**

**Chapter 4**

**In which Kai finally gets into the District and visits her store for the first time**

Kai stepped through the massive gates and into the District proper. She was about to begin looking around, when a thundering sound from behind her got her attention. Looking in the direction of the noise, Kai saw that the huge steel gates were closing slowly behind her. It was as though the very doors that separated her own world from that of the Poleepkwa were closing behind her. For the briefest of moments, she considered running over to the intercom and crying out to the guard to let her go back to the human world.

"_Stop that! You didn't travel a thousand miles and fill out a million papers to go back now!"_ her inner voice scolded harshly. She silently thanked it.

Taking a deep breath, she adjusted her backpack again and began the journey to her shop.

The District was, for the most part, the same as she had read about in books and the Internet; hot, dusty, and the same sandy brown color everywhere. There were a few rather large buildings that Kai could see were actually the Gebeuren versions of houses. They were about forty feet square; huge compared to the tiny shacks in other parts of the District, and looked as though they had been painted white at one time. The paint had been faded by time and the elements; just like the outside fence, and was peeling and cracked in places. The actual Gebeuren was so small that Kai could actually see the section of fence that separated it from the other parts of the District; another tall, grey steel fence with a large gate.

The houses were arranged into what one might consider "blocks", composed of four houses each. Each house had a small yard surrounding it ten feet on every side, and separated by a chain link fence. These were arranged so as to create narrow streets. Kai had a map of the place in her pocket, and she pulled it out to see where she needed to go. She began walking and reading at the same time; a good and bad habit of hers. It appeared that there were approximately one hundred houses in the Gebeuren, and at last count the population was about fifty. The whole place was laid out in a kind of neat grid pattern, fitting in with the MNU's concept of order. There were a couple of other buildings besides houses; a small "school", where the map said that any Poleepkwa children could attend and learn "appropriate materials".

"How sweet…" Kai growled, looking elsewhere on the map. From what she had read, population control in the Gebeuren was more strictly controlled than elsewhere in the District. Licenses had to be purchased for the production of offspring, just like elsewhere, but residents also had put their names on a kind of waiting list. The Poleepkwa at the top of the list got to have kids, but there was a catch; there was a time limit. If residents failed to produce viable offspring by the deadline, they were taken off the list, and had to pay a hefty fee to get back on it again. Kai thought of this with sadness; after all the couples in other places who had a dozen kids just to reap the benefits of welfare programs, the Poleepkwa had to buy the right to reproduce.

"_You're just going to get yourself upset; you need to watch your temper if you're going to stay here. The Poleepkwa need the jobs you're going to provide."_ the inner voice chided.

"You're right…" she replied, then looked around; answering one's inner voice was not the way to make friends… She'd found that one out in high school.

Looking back to the map, Kai spotted her shop. Luckily, she'd gotten the map the day before, in the hotel in Johannesburg, so she could find the place. She was glad to find that the map was recent; a few months ago, there was probably an empty lot there…

"_Or someone's house…"_ another inner voice said. She hated it when that voice spoke up. A sinking feeling in her stomach told her that the voice might be right; the MNU would definitely not think twice about bulldozing some poor Poleepkwa's home to make way for the store of a high-paying American business man…they did far worse things to the Poleepkwa than that, if rumors were to be believed…

"MNU Spreads Lies…" she said to herself, reciting the slogan of the rogue Web site rumored to be hosted by a Poleepkwa. The Poleepkwa said his name was Christopher Johnson, and that he wanted better treatment for his species; something that Kai could get behind. She'd visited the site several times, posting her support for nonhuman rights. It was from that that she'd gotten the idea to come to Africa in the first place. She looked up at the sky, now free of the huge ship that had hovered over the place for twenty years.

"_Six months…it left six months ago…"_ Kai thought to herself, putting a hand in front of her face and squinting against the blazing sun.

_Christopher Johnson, Wilkus van de Merwe…_

The names popped into Kai's mind, making her remember the past few months. Their names had been all over the news and Internet; Wilkus van de Merwe, an MNU employee involved in some kind of weirdness with his company, and Christopher Johnson, a Poleepkwa who was helping him with whatever they were doing. Whether Johnson was the one hosting the site or the one hosting the site just had the same name was unclear to Kai. Rumors on the net speculated that Johnson was the one who took the ship and went home; the news and MNU leaked footage postulated the same thing. The theory was that Johnson had gone home and was now either preparing a rescue or preparing his people for war; or both. Kai couldn't really blame him if it was the latter.

Van de Merwe, on the other hand, was rumored to be wanted for everything from stealing secret MNU information and alien technology to illicit–and illegal–sex with the Poleepkwa (specifically Johnson). Why people's minds turned to that particular conclusion, Kai didn't know, but the news had said that he had some kind of dangerous contagion from his encounters, whatever they were.

"Odd, because they never say much about all the prostitutes in the District…" Kai thought. For some reason, she had a feeling that the whole thing went a lot deeper than the media made it appear; but then again, most things did.

Now, the media had quieted down a bit. Every now and then, an "eyewitness" sighting would be reported of either the human or Poleepkwa… She laughed when she thought of the day she saw a badly edited photo of van de Merwe and a Poleepkwa as bride and groom at a Las Vegas chapel with Elvis as the minister.

"Looks like I'm here…" Kai said, looking at the place the map indicated. Lowering the paper, she saw her shop for the first time.

The place was a little larger than a normal convenience store, and had a second story. This addition was so that Kai could actually live above the place, and not have to go in and out every day. Her father had had to pull a lot of strings for that particular arrangement. There was no gas station out front, like other stores; there was no use for one, as pretty much no Poleepkwa had vehicles of any kind. The doors were made of thick–possibly bulletproof–glass, and were tinted to keep the sun out. The building was painted a light brown color, and a large sign on the top of the place read "Kai's", as no chain would want their name being affiliated with the District or its inhabitants.

Reaching into her pocket, Kai pulled out the key she'd been given the day before and unlocked the doors. She flipped on the light switch, and blinked for some reason as the florescent lights flickered to life. Walking into the place was like walking into Hell itself. The air conditioning hadn't been turned on in awhile, and she hoped that the fridges and freezers were working properly. Walking into the back where the huge AC units were, Kai found that they were fairly simple to figure out, and put them on the medium setting. In fifteen minutes, the place was pleasantly cool, and she could get around to business.

Going to the front of the store, Kai looked around from behind the counter. Ten rows of shelves stood empty in the middle of the store, and a few freezer and refrigerator units hummed in the back. Nothing was on said shelves or in said units; but she was expecting some stock the next day.

"_Gotta remember to get cat food…"_ she mentally told herself; if she was going to be working with Poleepkwa, she'd need lots of the stuff.

On the counter there was a large automated cash register. This one was of a slightly older model that had no slot for credit or debit cards, the only reason being that she was certain that no Poleepkwa would have a bank card, and humans would probably steer clear of the store, at least for awhile. In preparation for her job, she'd learned how to make change for pretty much any amount and in ten currencies, just in case.

"_Okay, the trucks will be here tomorrow at noon to bring in the stock…I need at least one employee to help me with it…"_ Kai thought to herself. But how to get an employee… Suddenly, she hit upon an idea.

Taking off her backpack, she reached in and produced a sketch pad and a black marker. After a few minutes of writing, she held her work at arm's length to study it.

**ATTENTION ALL RESIDENTS OF THE GEBEUREN!**

**KAI'S CONVENIENCE STORE NEEDS HONEST, HARDWORKING EMPLOYEES!**

**HONEST WORK FOR HONEST PAY!**

**COME BY TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW!**

She wrote this in English, and when she was done, grabbed another piece of paper and wrote the same words in Poleepkwa text. When she was finished, she taped the signs side-by-side on the front door.

"_Hope someone comes by…"_ Kai thought. With any luck, the MNU wouldn't scare off anyone looking for a job.

Kai looked at her watch and, seeing that it was almost three o'clock, picked up her bag, got her laptop out, and turned on her favorite Internet TV station to watch _Bleach_. She had to pay extra for the Internet anime network, and the time zones had thrown her off a bit, but it was something to do to pass the time while waiting to see if someone would show interest in employment.

"This could take awhile…" Kai said, and pulled out a packet of chips. She had barely begun to get into the latest fight, when a knocking at the door got her attention. Turning her head, the young woman was surprised to see a large Poleepkwa looking curiously at her through the glass.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer – Don't own District 9 or Bleach, or any of the characters therein, save my own.**

**Chapter 5**

**In which Kai conducts her first interview**

"Oh!" Kai said, hurrying to open the door for the Poleepkwa.

As she did so, the creature backed up at the sudden movement. Kai, not wanting to scare him away, moved slowly as she opened the door.

This particular nonhuman was about seven feet tall; average height for his species, and was a deep umber color, with the characteristic large amber eyes. He was wearing the remains of a torn green tank top; one of the sleeves had come apart, and was tied in a knot to keep it together. He was also wearing what appeared to have once been denim work jeans; as they had oil stains all over them that had been faded by time and many washings.

"Hi! Are you here looking for a job?" she asked, as the nonhuman took a tentative step into the store.

He looked around nervously, as though unsure if he should even answer. Kai was sure that it was because of the fact that he was constantly being screamed at by humans.

"It's okay if you're looking for work; I just to interview you to see if you'd be good at this job…" Kai said gently.

"You…you would hire us?" he asked, probably meaning Poleepkwa.

"If you're qualified, yes I would." the human replied, and escorted the taller being inside, where she led him to a table in the corner. She'd had the chairs specially ordered from a company that made furniture for very heavy people; so as to accommodate her nonhuman patrons. All the while, the Poleepkwa was looking around nervously and wringing both pairs of hands, his antennae flicking around wildly.

"Are you okay?" Kai asked, noticing the erratic behavior.

"Oh, please forgive me; the truth, the MNU told the residents of the Gebeuren to stay in their homes for at least six hours after you arrived. We were told this a week ago, and we've been reminded every day since that a very important human was coming and that it would not be wise to bother her… We were told that you would be opening a shop here that would hire and serve our kind; is this true?"

"Yes; if you're qualified to do the work I need done, you'll be hired on as my first employee. Don't worry; I'm in no way with MNU; I just needed their permission to be here." Kai reassured. After a moment, she suddenly thought of something.

"Hey, I didn't get your name."

"Oh! My name is Darren… Darren Gresten.

"Ooh, cool name! I'm Kai Validus…" Kai said, reaching for the alien's hand to shake. He hesitated, obviously never having been showed any kind of cordial behavior by humans, before returning the gesture. Kai was amazed by how enormous his three-fingered hands were compared to hers.

"So, what would I have to do if I worked here?" Darren Gresten asked, looking around at the empty store.

"Well, you'd start by helping me stock the place when the supplies come tomorrow. I'll need someone to unload the trucks, as I'm sure the driver won't be of any help… After that, I guess you'll just help out around the place." Kai said.

"And…what about wages?" he asked; no money meant that he couldn't afford all the fees that came with living in the Gebeuren, which meant that he'd be back in the slums within the month.

"Let's see… I know that the minimum wage in America is generally about $7.25 an hour, which is about… I'm just going to round this off to 56 Rand an hour… I've got no feel for this money…same thing happened to me in Japan last year…" Kai said pulling out a calculator from her pocket.

**A/N – I'm using a currency converter, and I've got no idea what minimum wages are in South Africa. If anyone has any ideas, please PM me.**

"B-but…those are human wages…and good ones, at that!" the nonhuman stammered, staring at the human girl, who put her calculator away.

"Like I put on my sign; honest work for honest pay. I don't expect you to work three times harder for three times less money. I know that there are a lot of places that do that, despite what the MNU and local businesses say. I also know that the MNU charges you a lot of superfluous fees and for a lot of ridiculous licenses. I don't intend to do any of those things. I offer decent work for decent pay; it's what I've been taught all my life and it's something I believe in." Kai said, realizing the corniness of the speech.

"And the hours?" Darren Gresten asked, sounding unsure of how to proceed with the conversation.

"Oh, right… It'll be Monday through Friday, eight to four, with an hour for lunch and breaks throughout the day. Payday is every Friday, with a bonus on certain holidays." Kai said.

The Poleepkwa sat in silence at the offer; Kai reminded herself sadly that it was probably the best offer than he–or probably any resident of the District–had ever gotten.

"When…when can I start?" he asked quietly, as though he couldn't believe what was happening.

"Like I said; tomorrow at eight." Kai replied.

"Very well; I'll be here. I just have to notify my current employer at the mines. If I don't show up for work, they'll assume that I'm roaming the city and come looking for me. Will I be the only one working here?" he asked.

"Depends on whether anyone else is interested. I don't know anyone here, so could you tell the other residents that I'm hiring? I don't want to scare them by going door to door…they probably have enough problems with humans bothering them that way as it is." the human said bitterly.

"I'll ask around; there are plenty of people who need better jobs. Don't worry; the others will get curious and come to see you soon enough. The six hour time limit is almost up, so there should be some Poleepkwa coming by. I've got to go now, though; the MNU do regular house inspections once a week, so I need to be there to explain myself, should they find any of my possessions "questionable"." Gresten said, rising from the chair. Kai escorted him to the door, holding it open for him.

"What are they looking for?" she asked.

"Just between us; caches of our weapons, technology, and anything they deem too valuable or inappropriate for us to have… They get angry if we're not there when they are, and they're not gentle when they go through our houses. I must go quickly; I can't afford to replace any more windows. Oh, they'll ask why I wasn't at home on my day off…" he muttered nervously, and hurried off down the street. Kai hoped that he'd be okay.

She went back over to her laptop, just in time to see Ichigo reach Bankai, and took a potato chip and ate it.


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 6**

A couple of hours later, Kai was in the middle of an _InuYasha_ marathon that she'd forgotten would be on. She was drooling over Sesshōmaru, when another knock at the door got her out of her odd Yaoi dog demon fantasies. Thinking that it was Darren Gresten, or possibly another Poleepkwa on a job hunt, she went over to the door.

She was looking through the glass to see who it was, when the door was suddenly and violently thrown open, nearly hitting Kai in the face.

Standing in the doorway was no Poleepkwa; but a fully armed MNU enforcer, clad in full riot gear. He was wearing the standard black bulletproof vest and helmet, but also carried a huge rifle. His helmet had a visor that obscured his face, making him appear all the more sinister. Kai, now more angry than stunned, called the person out.

"Hey! What's your problem, jackass? You nearly took my head off!" she snarled. The enforcer turned to look at her, the light shining off a silver MNU pin on his vest. Setting his rifle on a nearby shelf, the enforcer reached up and took off his helmet. His face was that of a man in his mid fifties, with close-cut grey hair and cold blue eyes. He had a look about him that made Kai think that he only smiled when someone else–probably someone innocent–was in pain or despair.

"Who are you?" he growled, in an American accent.

"I'm Kai Validus; the owner of this store!" Kai retorted.

"You're hiring the prawns in this area, aren't you?" he asked, the contempt in his voice was unmistakable.

"No; I'm hiring the _Poleepkwa_ in this area. "Prawns" are large shrimp, and therefore are not usually found working in most convenience stores!" Kai said.

"Hey, you're here because the MNU lets you be; so quit being a smartass, you little brat! I'm here to inform you of the laws of the Gebeuren; so you don't get into trouble and get your daddy involved in our business! I know for a fact that he had a hand in your being here."

"My "daddy" and what he has a hand in are none of your business! I've got papers from the MNU head offices that say I can hire nonhumans as long as I inform them whenever I do so! I'm not the only store in District 9 that hires Poleepkwa!" Kai said.

"No; but you're the only one who seems to be offering them human wages!" the enforcer shot back, producing her "now hiring" sign, which he'd apparently torn off the window. He wadded it up and let it fall slowly to the floor, and crushed it as he took a step toward her.

"Yeah, so? It's my money; I can do what I want with it!" well, technically it was her dad's money…

"Look, kid; let me give you some advice… Don't treat the bugs like humans. We've already screwed up by giving the prawns names. You treat them like humans, they start thinking they're as good as us, then they'll start causing more problems. We've already got our hands full as it is, with riots and population control."

Kai winced at the words "population control". Basically, the enforcers went around setting fire to Poleepkwa eggs; sometimes with the young just days or even hours from hatching. She'd seen it on the news a few times; with the reporters calling it a successful raid… Kai called it infanticide, and it made her want to vomit. She'd heard stories on the Internet about MNU agents joking about the sounds the eggs made when they were burning…

Shaking off the image, Kai turned her attention back to the enforcer.

"Who are you, anyway? What's your name?" she demanded.

"Sergeant Thomas Parker. I'm the head of the Gebeuren Task Force. We're specially placed around this area to make sure that the prawns abide by the rules. Like I said; I was sent here to make sure you knew the rules and regulations of this section of the District." the enforcer growled.

"And those are?"

"First off, the rules here are different from most other parts of the District. In other places, the prawns are allowed to roam around as the please; that does not happen here. All residents are required by law to have and maintain jobs that take up at least eight hours of the day. All residents are required to pay fees set down by the MNU Nonhuman Housing Board. No nonhuman may be on the streets after ten at night or before seven in the morning. I assume that the guard at the gate gave you some papers about these rules?"

"Yeah…that Peters guy did…" Kai muttered.

"Good; read them, memorize them, post them in this shop, if you have too. If your employees step out of line, you can either call us or exercise your rights."

"Rights?" Kai asked, confused.

"As a property owner and guest of the MNU, you have the right to defend your life and property from persons–human or otherwise–who would do you and/or said property harm. Basically, if a prawn gets out of line, you can put the bastard down. I recommend going into the city and getting a gun ASAP." Sergeant Parker said, looking fondly at his own firearm.

"Don't like guns." Kai said simply.

"Then call us if there's trouble." Parker said, handing her a card with the MMU logo and a number on it. Kai put the piece of paper in her pocket; not wanting to see the logo on anything else. It was bad enough that the District residents had it stamped onto their heads…

"Right then. I'm off. Remember; call us if the prawns get out of line."

"I'll be sure to do that." Kai said quietly.

"Look, kid; don't be a smartass with me. The District is a dangerous place, and you never know when something bad could happen. Let's say you call us, needing help; why, we could be off somewhere handling something else… See what I mean? You don't want to get on our bad side…"

"No…wouldn't want that at all…" Kai agreed darkly.

"Good; glad we understand each other. Have a nice day." with this, he turned and walked out the door and out of sight, with Kai giving his back the finger.

"MNU fuckass…" Kai muttered, then went to the counter to make a new sign.

"_You should have behaved yourself… That guy's going to be trouble in the future."_ the Inner Voice said.

"He's the one making trouble…" Kai answered; now that there was no one around, she figured she could talk to herself like a lunatic and no one would give a damn.

"_You could just have said "yes sir" and "no sir"; but you had to be a smartass, like always!"_

"He's the one who nearly kicked in my door!"

"_Yeah, but you had to go and start shit with him! It's gonna bite you in the ass! Just right smack in the center of the ass! And you know it's not you who's going to be paying for it in the end! Just like always!"_ Inner Voice griped.

Kai had to admit the Voice was right; it usually was. She didn't know anyone personally here; so there was only one person that the Sergeant could pick on…make that fifty… Maybe the guy would leave her alone and it'd be the end of the whole affair…maybe.

She'd just replaced her sign, when yet another knock at the door got her attention.

It was Darren, he was holding his head with one hand, but otherwise seemed all right. Kai rushed to let him in.

"Oh my God! Are you okay?" she asked, grabbing the Poleepkwa by the arm and leading him over to the table they'd sat at earlier. She hurriedly grabbed a rag from the cabinet under the counter and went to the bathroom sink to wet it with cold water.

"I'm fine; the MNU have done far worse to me…" Darren said, rubbing the side of his head. Kai hurried back and gently took his hand away from the spot, seeing that a bruise was already forming on the areas not protected by the Poleepkwa's exoskeleton. The bruise was a perfect outline of the butt of a rifle.

"What are…? Why are you doing this?" Darren asked, as Kai applied the cold rag to the area. He shifted around like a child avoiding the all-too-common stinging antiseptic spray.

"Because you're hurt… Hold still; I don't want to end up hurting your antennae…" Kai said firmly, and Darren sat still, his large amber eyes never leaving her. Poleepkwa antennae were laced with delicate and sensitive nerves that aided their owners in almost every aspect of life. Losing one of the sensitive organs would be the equivalent of a human losing an eye or becoming deaf in one ear. Luckily, the delicate structures didn't seem to be damaged in any way.

"Now hold that there until it stops swelling a little…" Kai said, letting the nonhuman take over.

"What did you do to make them hit you?" she asked, sitting across the table from him.

"I gave what they said was a "smartass" answer to a question. They asked "have you got anything to hide from us?" I said "not since the last time you looked through my things." they hit me and told me to watch my filthy prawn mouth; then knocked over some of my furniture, did their inspection, and left without finding anything. In retrospect, I should have just answered with a "no"… I'm usually not so defiant; but I was in such a good mood after you gave me a job…"

"So, do I say sorry?" Kai asked, half joking.

"No! Getting this job is the best thing that's happened to me since…well, the best thing that's happened to me in quite awhile." the Poleepkwa said, giving his species' strange version of a smile. This was hard to describe; except that a lot of it involved their antennae and eyes.

"That's good to know, sort of…" Kai said. Back home, a lot of people hated to have people seeing them working in such places as a convenience store; it was so sad that this was the best thing in this Poleepkwa's life…

"You feeling better?" she asked after a few minutes of watching Darren hold the rag to his temple.

"Yes; I'm feeling fine."

"Oh, I hate to ask this now; but did you happen to see any more Poleepkwa? I'd really like to have a few more people to divide the workload…"

"Oh, right… I did see someone when I was coming from my house. I asked, and he said that he'd come and see about getting a job. He should turn up in the next hour; his house is always inspected right after mine." Darren said, laying the rag on the table. Kai could see that the bruise didn't look so bad. She dearly wished she'd had some ice or frozen food of some sort to put on the injury…

"That's great! What's his name?" the human asked excitedly.

"Gordon Byron." Darren replied. Kai laughed.

"What is funny?" the Poleepkwa asked, cocking his head at the human's reaction.

"Are you serious? "Byron" is the name of a really famous poet from, like, three hundred years ago!" Kai said, still smiling.

"Perhaps so; but our names are chosen at random by computer. We've got no control over what we're called." Darren informed her.

"Yeah, I heard about that; and they assign you numbers with your name. So someone would be like "Jane Smith 144" or something, right?"

"Yes; I'm known officially as either Darren de Graffe 1713 or Darren Gresten 240…"

"You've got two last names?" Kai asked.

"I took my mate's last name when we affirmed our bond." the Poleepkwa informed her proudly.

"I thought Aliens were…you know…hermaphrodites?"

"We are; but we can form pair bonds, just like humans."

"So, where's your…uhm…partner?" she didn't know what else to call it.

Darren became suddenly quiet; his antennae drooping a little and his eyes growing somber. Kai decided not to press the issue.

"Hey, never mind; let's get back to business… Is this guy honest? Hardworking?" she asked.

"As far as I know. I work in the mines; he works in the small school we've been permitted to set up. There are very strict regulations on Poleepkwa meeting in public here, so we don't get to talk much. I know he's very intelligent, though." the last part sounded like an afterthought.

"Maybe I'll put him in charge of bookkeeping…" Kai murmured.

"You've got that kind of confidence in one us?" Darren asked.

"That and I _really_ hate bookkeeping." Kai said, and the Poleepkwa laughed.

"You know, you're really easy to talk to." the human said, after a minute.

"As are you; I've rarely been able to speak more than a few sentences to humans before they scream at me…" the larger being said, his mouthparts moving in a thoughtful way.

The two sat and talked for a little while, until someone knocked on the store's window.

"Oh, that's the person I told you about…" Darren said, rising and going over to let the other Poleepkwa in.

"Kai Validus, this is Gordon Byron." Darren said, the two coming over to where the human sat.

Kai took one look at the new Poleepkwa, and gasped in surprise and recognition.

This person–Gordon Byron–was none other than the one who had taught her the Poleepkwa language in the first place.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer – Don't own District 9, or anything else that's copyrighted that may appear in this story.**

**Chapter 7**

**In which Kai reunites with an old friend and discusses District regulations**

"Y-You!" Kai said, looking in awe at the Poleepkwa before her.

He was a little taller than Darren, and a similar color; but age had turned his exoskeleton into a lovely shade of light grey-brown. He was wearing a large blue sweater with the sleeves missing, and a pair of frayed black slacks. In one hand, he carried an old briefcase that looked worn, but well cared for.

"You…you look very familiar…" the nonhuman said, cocking his head at the human.

"I should hope so; you taught me your language in college!" she said, smiling widely. She'd always wondered what had happened to her teacher; and had always hoped it was something good. She'd actually wanted to track him down; but it had seemed impossible, as the MNU, for whatever reason, hadn't given his name to the students.

"Kai? Kai Validus?" he asked, now seeming to recognize her.

"Yeah, and you're Gordon Byron…"

"You were my best student; you paid attention, got your work in on time, showed up every day… I would have loved to teach you more, but the MNU canceled my class after the one term…" he remembered.

"I would have loved to learn more; I still have trouble with some pronouns when I write Alien text."

"I couldn't tell from your sign; you did a very good job. Darren tells me that you're offering human wages?"

"Yeah; you interested?" Kai asked, eager to help out her old teacher.

"Yes; they've raised the fees lately, and I can't afford to pay..."

"Well, where are you working now?"

"At the school–if you could call it that–teaching MNU-approved material to my students."

"How many do you have?" Kai was curious as to how many children there were in the Gebeuren, and if the MNU made them go to school or if it was elective.

"I had two; they closed the school down a couple of days ago."

"Why would they do that?"

"They accused me of teaching "inappropriate and dangerous materials" to the students. All I did was tell them a little about our homeworld, and they accused me of something akin to sedition! The children asked me a few simple questions, I answered, and I lost my job, and they lost the opportunity for an education!" Byron said, sounding outraged. It was apparent that teaching was his passion.

"You know, you'd think that the MNU would want the kids to be smart… But then again; stupid people are easier to keep in line…" Kai said this last part as an afterthought.

"Indeed… They don't want a generation that could possibly think for themselves; they want compliance." Darren said.

"So what are the kids going to do now?" Kai asked.

"I don't know… Their parents work in the mines almost twelve hours a day; they've got nowhere else to go. The MNU has a habit to sending unattended children off to who knows where; so I've got no idea what they'll do with them. They could go with their parents, I suppose; but mines are far too dangerous for children…and the humans that run them aren't fond of Poleepkwa…" Byron said sadly.

"Could they stay here during the day?" Kai asked.

"It's up to the parents, but I don't see why the MNU would really care. There are only two, and they're very well-behaved; so you won't have to worry about them being underfoot." Byron said.

"Only two kids in the whole place?" Kai asked.

"Yes; one of them is the offspring of my friend and his partner…it took them six months to get the license and another two to get the hatchling registered. The other one was born in the District proper, and had to be registered twice; once with the authorities outside the Gebeuren, and again with the authorities inside. His father had to wait almost a year; and that was _after_ he obtained the funds to move here." the older Poleepkwa explained.

"How awful… To buy the right to have children…then bring them up with everyone being so cruel…" Kai said quietly.

"Which is why I vowed that I would not have any children unless or until I got away from Earth. When the ship left a few months ago, it gave me hope that we'd be on our home planet again, and I could finally start a family." Byron said, an optimistic tone sneaking in.

"I've heard," Darren said, in a hushed voice, even though they were indoors, "that the ship is due to return in a little over two years from now."

"Hush! Be careful, young one! The MNU is always listening for such rumors! Where did you hear such things, anyway?" the older Poleepkwa asked, in a scolding tone.

"I heard it from an acquaintance down in the mines, who heard it directly from a strange Poleepkwa in the central District." Darren said quietly.

"A strange Poleepkwa?" Kai asked, interested. She was glad to see that her humanity didn't put the other two off on talking to her.

"Apparently," Darren said, evidently liking the attention, "he's an acquaintance of Christopher Johnson or Wilkus van de Merwe, or both. My friend says that he's got one blue eye and one normal one, and likes to make odd little trinkets out of scraps of metal and the like."

"Well, that probably keeps him from losing his mind; something to concentrate on, you know?" Kai said, remembering something she'd heard in psych class about people in despair sometimes taking on craft projects and such to help them through their troubles.

"Well, my friend says he's always talking about his "angel" or some such thing. I don't know if he's got reliable information or not." Darren said thoughtfully.

"Your friend or the arts and crafts Alien?" Kai asked.

"Either, really; my friend likes his cat food, and I can't verify anything about the Poleepkwa he mentioned."

"It's a nice thought, though…going home…" Byron said wishfully.

"Indeed; but we shouldn't think on it long; we'll just depress ourselves." Darren reasoned gently, and the older Poleepkwa nodded.

"So, you'll ask the kids' parents if they can stay here during the day?" Kai asked.

"Yes, when they arrive home later on. So, what would my job entail?" Byron asked.

"Well, it'd basically be a lot of paperwork; bookkeeping, inventory, invoices…things of that sort. Do you think you can do it?"

"Child, on my world I was one of the most widely respected philosophers and scholars in our history! I believe I can handle making sure we've got enough salty snack foods!" the Poleepkwa said indignantly, drawing himself up to his full height.

"Okay then; you've got the job. You can start at eight tomorrow; lunch is at one, quitting time's at four. It should give you enough leeway to avoid the MNU's curfew laws and stuff. If the parents say it's cool, you can bring the kids with you, so they don't have to be out on the streets alone or the parents don't have to be late for work." Kai offered.

"Very well." Byron said.

"Okay then, this is good! I've got two employees, you've got jobs, and it's the first day I've been here!"

"And we get to stay here for awhile longer…" Darren said, with somewhat less enthusiasm.

"Joy." Byron muttered.

"But, even with all the extra laws, aren't you living better than the Off-worlders in the other parts of the District?" Kai asked.

"Yes and no; some of us have electricity and water, and we can find jobs a little easier here, but the extra laws make if far harder for us to do as we please. We're normally not allowed to congregate in groups larger than five, we must inform the MNU whenever we leave the area…" Darren said, counting the rules off on his fingers.

"And my personal favorite; special privileges if we inform the MNU of any suspicious activities of our neighbors. That one actually had me laughing." Byron said.

"You mean you get rewarded if you snitch?" Kai asked flatly.

"Absolutely; though it's not as though any of us here could be up to anything…what with the house inspections, the guards checking us whenever we enter or leave for work, constant supervision at work…" Darren said.

"Fascism at it's best." Kai muttered.

"Well, let's not let the MNU spoil today like they do every other day… This is good, very good! We're going to earn human wages; and we won't have to work in mines or teaching material we don't believe in!" Byron said, trying to bring a little cheer back to the atmosphere.

"I just wish I had some food to offer you or something… Maybe… Oh, I know! How about I go into town and get some really expensive cat food for you guys? It'd only take an hour, at most… Can you watch the store?" Kai asked, looking the two Poleepkwa, who had turned their attention to her at the mention of cat food.

"There's nothing to watch…but for cat food I'd do almost anything…" Byron said, practically drooling.

"Seconded." Darren said.

"Okay then; here's the key, I'll be back in less than an hour." Kai said, shouldering her backpack. For some reason, she didn't think that the two Off-worlders would cause trouble at her store; there was nothing to steal, either in the store or in the rooms above that were to be her living quarters. Nothing would come of destroying the place; save for very harsh MNU treatment, so Kai decided to leave the two in charge. Darren seemed too timid to do anything, and Byron seemed to think himself above such things.

Kai handed the keys to Byron–he did seem to be more responsible–and went out the door toward the large gate.

_Darren's POV_

"I can't believe she trusts us enough to leave us in charge of her shop…" Byron said, going over to sit at a table. He opened his briefcase and began to look at some papers that looked as though they were children's homework.

"She's different from the others, that's for sure…" Darren said quietly, watching the human walk off toward the gate.

"Well, I'd have settled for someone with half the avarice of the MNU enforcers…but this is amazing! She really seems to…care…"

"I agree… It's too bad she's a human…" Darren said quietly.

"You're not interested, are you?" Byron said, looking up quickly.

"Of course not! It's illegal…and besides…I have a partner…" Darren replied.

"You did have…but he's…" Byron stopped when he saw the look the younger Poleepkwa gave him.

"I have a partner..." Darren said again, and turned around to watch a pair of birds roosting together on a power cable.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 8**

**In which Kai buys cat food and learns not to leave Poleepkwa in charge of an empty convenience store**

"Yeah, I want you to let me out." Kai said through the intercom.

"So, you're tired of those prawns by now? I don't blame you!" Peters said mockingly.

"I'm actually getting on rather well with the Poleepkwa; I just need to run some errands in the city!" Kai said tersely.

"Whatever…stand back." Peters said. In a moment, the gate rumbled and began to open.

Kai walked through the gate and took out her cell phone. She dialed for the operator, and asked for the Happy Travels Cab Company.

"Yeah, I need a ride from the east entrance of District 9 into the city… Yeah…the District, that's right… Ooh, what about Napoleon Bongani…yeah, tell him it's crazy rich girl…okay, thanks." in a moment, the phone picked up again.

"All right…fifteen minutes? Okay." she said, then hung up.

"What to do for fifteen minutes?" Kai thought to herself. The choices were simple; either talk to Peters, who was cleaning his nails with a toothpick, or play a mindless computer game…

Fifteen minutes later…

"So…many…Murlocs…" Kai said, sweat dripping from her forehead into her eyes.

"Hey! Crazy rich girl!" a familiar voice called, distracting her from her online massacre.

"Hey!" Kai said, putting her computer away and hoisting her backpack onto her back.

"You leaving prawn town already?" the man asked, flicking the remains of his cigar out the driver's window.

"Nah; just running some errands in the city. Can you take me to a general store or something? I need to buy some stuff and my stock's not come in yet." she replied, getting into the taxi.

"All right; same rate as before." Bongani said, lighting up another cigar.

"You drive a hard bargain…" Kai said, handing him the money.

"Okay, the best local place I know of is More for Less; it's got everything at good prices, and I'm not required by my company to say that. It's only about twenty minutes away from here." Bongani suggested.

"Sounds good to me; I need to get back there as soon as I can… I don't know how long it's safe to leave those two in charge of my shop…" Kai said.

"Those two? You found a couple of MNU guys to watch your shop?"

"No…not exactly…" Kai muttered. Bongani figured it out, and pulled the car up short. If Kai hadn't been wearing her seatbelt, she'd have been thrown through the windshield.

"You…you left prawns in charge of your store?" he asked, astonished.

"Yeah; Darren and Byron. They're good guys…" Kai defended.

"You really trust two prawns?"

"Yes, I do trust two Poleepkwa. They're okay, and they've got nothing to gain from destroying the place. Let's go; I don't want to be out after dark." Kai said, looking around at the dimming light.

"Right." Bongani said, understanding her concern. The place was dangerous enough in the daytime; but the really bad stuff always happened at night. Kai would honestly have chosen to be torn apart by one hundred angry Poleepkwa than spend a night alone on these streets; at least the Nonhumans would get it over with quickly.

They drove on, a little faster than Bongani said he usually did, and finally arrived at the store he'd mentioned. Getting out, Kai was informed that she had twenty minutes, then the cigar-smoking cab driver would be off for home.

Kai hurried into the store, money in her pocket and a list already formed in her head. She didn't have to ask where everything was; most convenience stores had a similar system of stocking their items. The only thing she wondered about was whether or not they had cat food. She was pleasantly surprised to find that an entire section of one isle was devoted to a rather large selection of the stuff. Kai grabbed a basket and put into it a few cans of fancy cat food, some rather nice-looking steaks (a couple for her and a couple for the Nonhumans), some soda and some sugary snack cakes. She topped off her cart with a few household items that she couldn't live without, and hurried up to the counter.

On the way, she saw that a few people who could be nothing but local thugs had come in. This was confirmed when one of them slipped a bottle of some kind of liquor into his pocket; the gleam of what could only be a gun caught Kai's eye and she quickly looked at a display of snack cakes. Deciding to keep low, she quickly handed her items to the young woman at the counter, who seemed to share her worry about the group of punks.

"Lot of cat food you got there; you buying for prawns?" the woman at the counter asked.

"Why do you ask?"

"Just that you've got a lot of it; you're either buying for prawns or a lot of cats." she said, ringing up all the cans.

"I've got nine cats." Kai said flatly, hoping the woman would take the hint and drop it.

"All right then." the woman said, accepting the money Kai produced and making change. Kai looked around the shop; seeing a poster with the MNU logo that advised shopkeepers to keep guns handy when dealing with Poleepkwa.

"Please come again." the clerk said, handing Kai four bags. Quickly, she hurried out the door and back into the cab.

"Woo… I thought you were gonna be in trouble for a minute…" Bongani said, hurriedly checking his mirrors and backing out of the store's parking lot.

"You saw those guys, too?" Kai asked, shuddering. She was a black belt, but she couldn't fight a bullet.

"Yeah…they come around here sometimes to make trouble…the police usually chase them off before they can do any real harm, but they're becoming more aggressive lately. I wouldn't suggest going anywhere alone in this part of town, okay?" he sounded genuinely concerned.

"You've got a deal. Are they a gang or something?" Kai asked.

"No…not yet, anyway. See, a few months ago, this big crime boss called Obasanjo got killed, along with a lot of his best men. Ever since then, a lot of local punk-asses have been trying to take their places. They're causing trouble all over the place. There've been murders, robberies, rapes, you name it! They're trying to figure out who's gonna be top dog when it's all over. Problem is all the innocent people that are dying so they can prove it. Stay away from them, if you value your life!" Bongani warned.

"Don't need to tell me twice…" Kai muttered.

"Good; too many of you young people are getting caught up in this crap… My brother's kid was… He was going to school when some of the local punks got into it in the middle of the street. They shot, he went down. The news people didn't even bat an eye when they reported it; it happens so often." Bongani said.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Kai said quietly.

"Nothing to do about it now. I did my crying when he died, and I'm done now. Here we are."

They pulled up to the gate, and Kai got out and paid the return fee.

"Later, cigar-smoking man." Kai said, testing out a nickname she'd thought up for the guy.

"Hey! Like from that TV show! I like that show! Later, crazy rich girl!"

"Hey, one more thing; why's your name "Napoleon"?" Kai asked.

"My parents are history teachers. My sister's name is Elizabeth, and my brother's is King Phillip." Bongani explained.

"Geez… My dad's name is Elric and my mom's was Luna. You know, if my dad would have won the coin toss, I would have been named Christabel, after the poem that he liked reading at the time. Well, I'll see you later." Kai said, and Bongani waved as he took off.

Kai went over to Peters' booth; and found it empty.

"Wonder what's up?" she asked, looking around. It was getting dark, and she could distinctly hear the sounds of loud laughter and swearing in other languages. Remembering what Bongani had said about gangs, Kai got more anxious by the minute…and the noises got closer.

Finally, she was relieved to see a white MNU van pulling up. The doors opened, and Peters, in full riot gear and armed, jumped out, followed by three heavily armed MNU enforcers.

"_Oh, shit!"_ Kai thought. The only thing that could be amiss in the Gebeuren was the store; more specifically, the two Nonhumans keeping an eye on it.

"Hey! Hey! What's going on?" Kai yelled, running over to Peters.

"Two prawns were found…in your store!" he replied, looking around as though he expected an attack from all sides.

"Yeah, they were in my store; because I left them in charge of the place!" Kai yelled, watching as Peters went over and pressed the button for the three enforcers to enter the Gebeuren.

"What are they going to do?" Kai asked, watching worriedly as the three marched into the District.

"They're going to take care of the prawns." Peters said, almost lazily. Now that his job was done, he went to his booth. Truthfully, he didn't look like the type to lead the enforcers into the fray.

"Shit!" Kai said out loud, running after the armed men.

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap!" the girl chanted, as she ran down the dusty streets, cans of cat food clinking in their bags.

At last, she arrived at the store, to find the place crawling with MNU agents and enforcers, and Darren and Byron being forced onto the ground by four men with semi-automatic rifles.

"Wait! Wait!" Kai yelled, dropping her bags and rushing over to where the two Nonhumans cowered in the dirt.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the men asked, pointing his weapon at her.

"I own this store! I'm Kai!" she said, raising her arms automatically. The man didn't take his eyes off her, but took his gun off her.

"How are we to be sure of that?" he asked. Kai obliged by producing the same paperwork and documents that she'd shown Peters earlier.

"So then, what were you prawns doing in her shop?" the enforcer barked, and Darren lifted his head.

"We were put in charge of the place…" he said, not making eye contact with the human.

"You're lying!" the enforcer snarled, giving the Off-worlder a kick with his steel-toed boot that made Kai wince. Darren cried out louder than he should have; the kick was hard, but it shouldn't have made him scream like that…

"No! I gave them the keys! I went down to the More for Less to buy some stuff! I took cab 1024 of the Happy Travels Cab Company; the driver was a Mr. Napoleon Bongani!" Kai insisted.

"So, you left these creatures to run your store?"

"Yes! What were they doing when you found them there?" Kai demanded.

"Sergeant Parker came back to give you an updated version of the rules and an access card for identification purposes when he saw the two prawns inside your store. He asked them what they were doing, and they said that you went into the city. He found their story suspicious, and called us. We've been interrogating them ever since." the enforcer said.

"Well you can stop! I did leave them in charge! Just leave them alone and go home! They've done nothing wrong!" Kai said, looking worriedly at Darren. The kick had connected with one of his secondary arms, and the Off-worlder looked as though he was in pain; the arm being at a slightly odd angle.

"That's for me to decide, Miss Validus." Sergeant Parker's voice snarled from behind Kai.

She turned to see him emerging from the store, clipboard in one hand, rifle in another.

"Look, I'll give you the numbers of both the cab company and the convenience store, and a receipt from both!" Kai asserted.

"You do that; I'll be calling to verify."

"Then will you leave them alone? They really didn't do anything!" Kai said, noticing Darren's pain at his injury. She quickly handed the sergeant her receipts and wrote down the number of the cab company for him.

"Sure, but someone will be coming by your store tomorrow with a mountain of paperwork. Next time, inform someone if you're going to leave prawns in charge; we had to mobilize an entire team tonight, you know. It's a lot of effort for just a couple of prawns. Don't be surprised if you receive the bill for the expenses…" with this, the sergeant told his men to go back to the trucks. He stayed behind, watching suspiciously as Byron began helping Darren to his feet. It was then that he noticed something Kai hadn't yet.

"Hey! You know the rules! No more than five in a group at one time!" he barked over Kai's shoulder, and she turned around.

The place was full of Poleepkwa. Evidently, they'd heard the commotion and had come out to see what the MNU was up to. They clustered around in small groups; the night air carrying the sounds of many clicks, chirps and trills to the humans' ears. Because it was getting dark, Kai couldn't see all of them clearly; but she could tell that there were at least forty of them.

The Nonhumans didn't need to be told twice; for they scurried off to their houses, not wanting a taste of what was going on between the MNU and the two others.

"Damn filthy prawns… They're like ants…bother one and the rest come out…" the Sergeant muttered to himself. Kai could sense that all of the residents being on the streets at one time made him a little nervous…for obvious reasons.

Looking at Darren, whose eyes were watering at the pain in his arm, Kai decided to wrap things up and treat the injury.

"Okay, fine…I'll pay…just get out of here…" Kai said.

"Fine…but in the future, you'll contact Peters whenever you intend to leave the area, and tell him when you'll be back and who you leave in charge. You will also provide him with contact information for you, your store, and anyone else he deems necessary…that should give that lazy bastard a sense of importance..." he muttered this last bit to himself, and Kai could sense that the Sergeant and the security guard weren't on the best of terms.

"You two prawns…watch yourselves…and be sure to be in your homes by curfew." he growled at the two Poleepkwa, who hadn't yet moved.

"Yes, we'll not be out after curfew…" Byron said quietly, avoiding eye contact.

"All right then…" Parker said, and hoisted his rifle before following his men. The gate could be heard closing a few minutes later, and the place became silent again. Kai quickly grabbed the bags she'd dropped; feeling that the meat was getting warmer by the minute.

"Come on; let's get you inside and do something for your arm…" she said, not meeting Darren's gaze. She didn't deserve to look him in the face after all that had happened. Byron helped him inside, and Kai followed, locking the door. All this, and it was only her first day…


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 9**

**In which Kai and her new friends eat junk food and have an enlightening conversation**

"Fuck… I don't have any ice…" Kai swore, as she and Byron led Darren over to a chair.

"A cold rag will have to do, if you've got one." Byron said.

"Yeah, right…" Kai replied and hurried off to retrieve one.

**Darren's POV**

"Are you in much pain?" the older Poleepkwa asked.

"I'm in enough."

"She's gone to get a cold rag… Can you move your arm?"

"I think so… Augh! I've had it with the MNU! There was no reason for this!" the younger one of the two said, his smaller arm retracting in pain.

"There's no reason for a lot of the things those vermin do…" Byron muttered scornfully.

"I swear, some days I'd like to just…" Darren growled, bringing his fist down on the table.

"I know, I know…but we can't fight them… They've got the upper hand at the moment…"

"But one day, the ship will return…and on that day, I guarantee that the MNU–and everyone else who treated us so badly–will realize their error."

"Perhaps; but until that day we have to comply with the MNU. We can't go home of we're dead, Darren. Your partner wouldn't want you to get yourself killed over some trivial matter. I'm sure Kai wouldn't either." Byron mused.

"I still can't believe she defended us! I mean, she could be in a lot of trouble as well."

"I really believe that she's different. I could sense that she wanted to fight with Sergeant Parker!" Byron said, a hint of a smile on his face.

"I think she could have taken him." Darren replied, looking down at his arm, which was already beginning to stiffen and swell. The pain was ebbing a bit; probably from the endorphins…but the pain would be back with a vengeance later on.

"Don't even talk like that, Darren! Remember that the MNU is the one allowing her to stay here. If she crosses them, she's out of here; along with any hope of decent wages and fair treatment!"

"True…" Darren said quietly.

**Kai's POV**

"Here's the rag…" Kai said, coming back into the room. She handed the rag to Darren, who wrapped it carefully around his smaller arm.

"Thank you." he said.

"Believe me, it's the least I could do… Look, I never meant to get you into that crap with the MNU and I certainly never meant for you to get hurt. I'm so sorry…" Kai said, with the utmost sincerity in her voice.

"We know that you didn't mean for this to happen." Byron said, and Darren nodded in agreement.

"But still… I should have considered the possibility that something like this would happen! God, the MNU are freaking animals!" Kai burst out in frustration.

"Maybe, but they're the alpha animals…for now." Darren said, unwrapping the rag to look at his arm.

"It seems as though we must…how would you humans put it…go with it. At least they didn't kill us. I've heard of Poleepkwa being shot over offenses far more minor than this. We're lucky…" Byron said cryptically.

"I guess, in a morbid way…that's true. Hey, I think we should go over what needs to be done tomorrow…there's a lot of food to stock, and a lot of inventory to take. I need you two to be here at eight, okay?" Kai said, trying to lift the mood a little.

"Speaking of food…" Darren said, eying the bags that Kai had lain down upon helping the Aliens into the store.

"Darren!" Byron scolded, sounding like a parent chiding their child.

"Oh, right!" Kai said, going over to the bags. The steaks were too warm now to be safe for her to eat, and she felt a little guilty about it, but she handed the package to Darren, and began to dig out some of the cans of cat food.

"Oh…real meat! It's not half rancid or crawling with maggots or anything!" Darren said, hugging the package.

"And…cat food!" Byron drooled. Kai handed him a can, which he gratefully accepted. Using his powerful mouthparts like a can opener, he exposed the wet food and began to eat, his amber eyes closing in rapture.

"I thought you guys would like that. It's the good stuff, too." Kai said, taking a drink of the soda she'd bought and unwrapping snack cake.

"Thank you!" Darren said, a steak disappearing into his mouth. He handed Byron one, and Byron reciprocated by handing the younger Alien a can of cat food.

"If I would have thought of it, I'd have gotten you a couple of tires or something." Kai admitted. For some reason, Poleepkwa loved the taste and texture of tires, and relished them like an exotic treat.

"Oh, this is plenty!" Byron said, munching happily on his second can of cat food.

"Yes; the MNU never came close to this kind of generosity!" Darren put in.

"Well, I figured the same thing. You want one of these?" Kai asked, offering a chocolate crème-filled cupcake to each Poleepkwa. They accepted them and trilled contentedly as they munched on the sweet snack food. The cat food began to take effect, and the Poleepkwa soon began behaving like–slightly–intoxicated humans. The pet food seemed to produce a euphoria, but not actual drunkenness; it was pretty entertaining.

After another hour of eating and talking, Darren and Byron decided that it would be best to get home before the curfew. They splashed themselves with cold water to sober themselves up a bit, and began getting ready to go.

"The MNU doesn't look kindly on us being out after dark here. They seem to think that we're up to something; though I can't figure out what they're so paranoid about." Darren said, as Kai took the cans and wrappers to the trash.

"The rules were pretty tight before; but since the ship took off, the company seems almost…afraid…of us. They've brought their fist down far harder then they did in the past; and that's saying something." Byron added darkly.

"What do you think they're afraid of?" Kai asked, wiping some crumbs off the table.

"Honestly? I believe that they believe that Christopher Johnson is going back home, and that he's going to inform our race of the humans' mistreatment. They're afraid…of war."

Even though it was quiet, a kind of eerie silence fell on the shop.

"Is…is that a possibility?" Kai asked.

"I really can't say for sure; but if so…let's just hope not."

'If they'd treated us like people, they'd have no reason to be afraid of anything." Darren scoffed.

"Enough, young one! I've told you before; watch what you say! That goes for you too, Kai; the MNU has eyes and ears everywhere…especially here."

"Why here?" Kai asked.

"Because they don't like the fact that we were able to work our way out of the District. See, all of us in the Gebeuren; we're smarter than a lot of the others. We're a kind of…higher class than the rest of the Poleepkwa, and the MNU doesn't like that. We're not like the ones in the District proper; we know when the company is trying to put one over on us, and they know that we know that. They're scared of us just as much as the others." Darren said cynically.

"Why's that?" Kai asked.

"Because; we question authority, the others don't…at least most of the time. We have the potential to organize; both ourselves and the majority. Truly, I believe that the only reason they gave us the opportunity to live here was to round us all up and keep an eye on us. Call it paranoia, but it makes sense, when you think about it." Byron said, looking around cautiously.

"Maybe; but my dad always told me never to underestimate the power of stupid people in a group… Oh! I didn't mean…" Kai said, face going crimson.

"It's fine." the two Aliens said.

"Oh, we'd better get going; I can hear the helicopters…" Darren said, looking anxiously out the window.

"Right. Good night, human Kai; we'll be here in the morning." Byron said, quickly getting his briefcase and heading for the door.

"Wait…your arm…" Kai said.

"It'll be fine… I don't think it's broken. In a few days, it'll be back to normal." Darren said, and the two thanked her again and headed out the door.

Kai locked the door and watched the two until she couldn't see them anymore. She then pulled down the metal screen that would protect the windows from anyone who wanted to break in.

After this, she walked behind the counter, opened a door, and headed up a flight of stairs that led to the second story of the building. The upper portion was her living quarters…or would be, once she bought some furniture.

She kicked herself, wishing she'd brought some blankets or something, and laid down on the floor.

"_I've got to remember to plan ahead…"_ she thought miserably, as she put her backpack under her head as a pillow.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer – Don't own District 9, YouTube Poop, Zelda, or anything else I might happen to mention in this chapter.**

**Chapter 10**

**In which Kai orders pizza and meets two Poleepkwa children**

"Noes! Sleepy!" Kai protested, as the alarm on her phone signaled that it was time to wake up.

"Fine, ass!" she said, rising and turning the alarm off. Yawning, she went to the bathroom and splashed some water on her face. Along with the store's inventory, a few of her things would be arriving later. She mentally kicked herself for not arranging for her things to arrive before she did, but shrugged; there was nothing do about it now.

It was about seven thirty; she'd arranged it so that she could get up and around before the Off-worlders arrived, but not have to sit around for two hours until they arrived.

Walking downstairs, she grabbed a snack cake left over from the night before, resolving to go into town and get some real food once she was properly settled in.

Taking a seat behind the counter, she took out her laptop and began watching a random online video; almost choking a couple of times. She took a drink of soda, making a face at the sour taste in comparison to the sweetness. After a few more videos, she got bored and started playing an online game.

"Bored…bored…bored…" she mumbled, as the minutes droned on.

At last, a knock at the door broke the silence, and Kai looked up to see the silhouette of a Poleepkwa in the doorway, and hurried to see if it was one of her employees.

"Morning, Darren!" she said cheerfully, as the young Poleepkwa stepped into the room.

"Good morning, Kai. This is the appropriate time, yes?"

"Yeah; where's Byron?" the human asked, looking around outside.

"Oh! He apologizes for being late, but the MNU were doing an inspection of his house when I left. They like to catch us early sometimes." Darren explained.

"Can't be helped, I guess… Let's see that arm." Kai replied, and went over to look at the appendage.

"It doesn't hurt as much today, but it is a little swollen." Darren said, allowing the human to carefully take the smaller arm in her hands. She'd had a couple of semesters of basic medical training at college, and had gotten excellent marks in the class. She hoped that she could do something about the injury; there probably were no doctors for the Poleepkwa anywhere in the vicinity.

"It's not quite as bruised as last night; but I'll put some ice on it when it comes later on. You don't need it to work, do you?" she asked, the real function of the secondary appendages had always eluded her.

"No, and thank you. Do you need me to do anything?"

"Nothing _to_ do yet. I guess we can just sit here…for four hours… Oh! I've got an idea! Are you hungry?" she asked.

"A little… What are you planning?" Darren asked.

"I" Kai said, picking up her cell phone and typing on her computer, "am going to order takeout!"

"Ooh…" the alien said, mouth tendrils waving in an interested way. He was looking out the window now, apparently waiting for Byron.

"Let's see…there's a pizza place, a burger place…a place for some kind of local fried food… Does pizza sound good to you?" she asked, looking over the laptop's screen.

"Anything's fine with me." Darren said, looking away from the window.

"Okay." she replied, and dialed the number.

"Hello…I'd like…let's see, Byron will want something too…four large pizzas…three meat specials and one with extra sauce, sausage, olives, pineapple, and bell peppers. Oh, and a large cola… Do you deliver? Oh, good… Where to? The east entrance to District 9… The Gebeuren… No…you won't be expected to enter…I'll be outside waiting. There's a guard outside… How much? All right…thank you." she hung up the phone.

"Any problems?" Darren asked.

"They sounded like they were going to have an aneurism or something when I told them where I wanted the food delivered…but they said they'd come if I was outside and a guard was present. I guess the delivery guy will be wanting a pretty big tip…which reminds me…I've got to go into town again and get more cash…"

"Kai, please don't think me rude; but…well, how did you come by all your money? The only humans I've ever seen with such wealth are the heads of MNU."

"Oh, my dad's the head of a big company–not MNU–they've got the patents on a lot of really high-tech stuff."

"He must be quite important." Darren observed.

"I guess… He's been super rich for a really long time, but he didn't start out that way. He worked really hard, got really rich, and married my mom and had me. Not in that order, though. My mom knew my dad before he was rich, so it's not like she married him for his money. Now my dad's known all over the world…" Kai explained.

"What happened to your mother?" the Poleepkwa asked.

"She died…" Kai said simply, and Darren seemed to take the hint.

"Anyway, I've got to go see Peters… I don't want a repeat of last night." the human said, shouldering her backpack.

"Should I stay here?" Darren asked.

"Yeah; in case Byron comes by."

Kai headed out the door, enjoying the feeling of the remaining coolness of the morning. All around, the Gebeuren was alive. Small insects could be heard chirping here and there amongst the sparse clumps of grass, and birds could be seen perched on roofs and power lines. The Poleepkwa population was already up; a few of them could be seen outside, apparently going to their jobs and, in the case of a few who were apparently couples, saying goodbye to their partners.

Kai thought that it was interesting that Poleepkwa did, on occasion, pair off. This baffled many humans, as the nonhumans were hermaphrodites and therefore were hardly in need of companions. From what she could discern from the documentaries that she'd seen on television, Poleepkwa relationships were similar to those of humans.

"Hey, Peters; I need out for a minute." Kai said into the intercom.

"Did you leave the prawns in charge of your place again?" the guard asked, making Kai flinch at the term "prawn".

"Yeah, I left Darren Gresten in charge of the store. Gordon Byron's going to be over soon. I'm just picking up something, so they shouldn't be left alone long." she replied.

"All right then, stand back." Peters said, and opened the gate.

Kai stepped through, muttering a tense "good morning" to the man, and stood a little way away from him to wait for her food. She would never forgive him for getting the Off-worlders in trouble.

"Finally!" Kai muttered, after ten minutes. A delivery truck pulled up and a young man of about sixteen hopped out and handed her the food. She paid him, plus a very generous tip, and he left. She carried the boxes, steaming and getting slightly greasy, over to the gate.

"Want back in?" Peters asked. Kai nodded.

"Sure smell good… You're not sharing with the bugs are you?" he asked.

"Maybe; I looked over the paperwork you gave me earlier, and it doesn't say anything about sharing food." Kai retorted.

"Right, but haven't you seen those signs at the zoo? "Don't feed the animals"?" he asked.

Kai bit back a "fuck you" and headed through the gate, secretly hoping the guard choked on one of his pastries, and went in the direction of her shop.

Finally, she got up to the door and walked in.

"Need help?" Darren asked, hurrying over to help his employer.

"Thanks!" Kai said gratefully, and Darren took the pizzas from her and put them on a table. Kai went into the bathroom to wash some grease from her shirt, dreading the upcoming battle to get it out.

She returned to see Darren going to open the door for Byron, who was carrying his briefcase and muttering.

"Morning, Byron." Kai said, and the older Poleepkwa turned to her.

"Good morning, Kai. I apologize for being late, but–"

"Darren told me about the MNU. Believe me; I'm not going to yell at you or anything. Oh, did you ask about the kids? I just need to know if I need to childproof this place or what."

"I asked the parents; they said that they'd be over this morning to see if they felt comfortable leaving their children with you. They've not had good experiences with humans, you see, and they're concerned." Byron explained, setting his briefcase down.

"I understand completely. Hey, do you want some food?"

"That would be nice." Byron answered.

Kai handed him one of the pizzas, which he busied himself with, and handed one to Darren as well. They ate and talked for awhile, since there was nothing else to do. Kai would really be glad when the place got up and running; it was one thing to eat and talk with friends at the end of the day when all the work was done, but she couldn't stand just doing nothing all the time.

They were interrupted when Byron heard a knock at the door and went to answer it. He returned leading three fully-grown nonhumans.

"Kai, these are the parents of the children I told you about." Byron said.

Two of the Off-worlders were obviously a couple; for one of them–an oddly feminine-looking one–was holding onto another one and looking at the human through light grey-green eyes. He was a pale brown, and wearing what might have once been a long coat. His partner, a tall, dull reddish-brown Poleepkwa with darker than normal eyes, made a reassuring chirping noise to the other. He was wearing the remnants of a dress shirt and long pants. The third one was a light grey-green, with pale amber eyes, watched the scene with some interest.

"Hello, I'm James Page and this is my partner Erin. Byron told us that you might be able to watch our child when we're working?" the reddish Alien said.

"And I'm Jesse Crane, and I must admit that I'm a bit apprehensive about this." Jesse said, looking skeptically at Kai.

"As are we, but since the humans took it upon themselves to deprive our younglings of an education, there's nowhere else for them to go during the day. We can't allow them to be with us at work; and the MNU won't tolerate them out in public unattended." Erin said quietly.

"But with a human?" Jesse said, looking at Kai, who wished she was somewhere else at the moment.

"Byron said that she could be trusted; is this correct?" James asked Byron.

"I had Kai in the Poleepkwa language class the humans allowed me to teach. During that time, she proved to be a hard-working, empathetic, reliable individual. I truly believe that she would take very good care of your children." Byron said, looking at Kai, who smiled back at him.

"Very well then, human; but if anything, and I do mean _anything_, happens to my child, no amount of MNU enforcers will be able to save you from me." Jesse said quietly, taking a step toward Kai.

"Understood." Kai replied, a little nervous. She could understand, however, the Poleepkwa's apprehension toward leaving his child with her.

This seemed to satisfy the Pages as well, and the three of them turned to the door.

"Come along, children." Erin said gently, and two small Poleepkwa emerged from where they were hiding–or had been hidden?–behind a shelf.

They seemed to be of different ages, judging by the difference in height. On of them was about three feet tall, and a light grey-green color. Kai guessed that he was Jesse Crane's child. He was wearing what appeared to be an altered pillow case; probably the only thing that would fit his tiny form.

Beside this one was a smaller Poleepkwa. He looked to be about eight inches shorter than his peer, and was looking around nervously at the situation, tiny antennae flicking about rapidly. He was ringing his hands anxiously, his secondary arms mimicking the gesture. He was so tiny that all his parents seemingly could find for him was a mismatched baby's outfit consisting of a boy's green shirt and a girl's pink pants. He was a light brownish-grey color with light grey-green eyes; so he must have been Erin's offspring.

"This," Jesse said, going over to stand beside the larger of the two children, "is Angelo."

"And this is Edgar." Erin said, and his child came to peer at Kai from behind his parent's leg.

"Hello…" Kai said quietly, bending down to the children's level. Both of them ducked behind their parents, looking up at them as if for reassurance.

"It's all right, Edgar…" Erin said, nudging his child to go forward. The little Alien chirped at his parent, and took a hesitant step toward Kai, who remained as still as possible. She couldn't blame the little creatures for being shy; they probably only had frightening experiences with humans.

The tiny alien got closer to the human, becoming more curious and less frightened as he drew closer.

"Hey…" Kai said, and the Poleepkwa chirped quietly in reply, cocking his little head at her.

The second Alien took a cue from the first, and walked over to Kai, trilling a bit as he drew closer.

"They seem to like you…" Jesse said thoughtfully, watching the two as they moved closer to examine the human, who stood still so as not to scare them.

"Yes; I've never seen Edgar so at ease with a stranger, let alone a human. I believe that he'll be all right here for awhile. What do you think, Erin?" James asked his partner.

"I think it'll be a good place for them, if they'll mind their manners. We just can't take them down in the mines with us…"

"I agree… What will they do all day?" Jesse asked, half to the other Poleepkwa and half to Kai. She searched her mind for an answer; she'd honestly not thought of what to do for the kids to keep them entertained.

"They'll…hmmm… I suppose I could… Byron?" Kai said, looking at her old teacher for help.

"If I have any spare time, I'll continue their lessons. Despite what the MNU seem to think, our people need to be educated." the old Poleepkwa stepped in.

"That sounds fine… We've got to go; if we're late, they'll take away our wages for the day." Jesse said, and bent down to his child.

"Goodbye, Angelo…be good for me, all right?" he said, picking his child up and hugging him. Angelo chirped to his father, returning the hug.

"And you too, Edgar; mind your manners and stay out of the way." Erin and James said to their son, who nodded.

The three Poleepkwa walked to the door, before taking a last look at their children, and James addressed Kai.

"Remember; don't let them go outside unless you're with them." he said.

"Right." Kai said, nodding.

The Poleepkwa returned the nod and left.

"Okay…what now?" Kai asked, looking at the two tiny beings left in her care.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 11**

**In which Kai finally gets her stock in, and everyone helps unload it**

"All right…uhm… I'm Kai Validus, and I'll be taking care of you today… Angelo, right? And you're Edgar?" she asked softly, as the two tiny Poleepkwa held each other, apparently even more shy now that their parents had left.

"I…I'm Angelo…" the grey-green child whispered, almost too softly to hear. He was probably used to hearing humans screaming at him, so he was understandably shy.

The light brown child stepped forward, seemingly emboldened by the actions of the other, and spoke in a voice that was quieter than that of the first.

"I'm Edgar…" he said.

"Hi… Are…are you two hungry?" Kai asked, remembering that she'd bought an extra pizza. Vaguely she wondered if it would be safe to give the two children human food, but then remembered that they subsided on scraps most of the time; after that, fresh food probably wouldn't do them any harm, but just in case…

"Hey, Byron; can they eat this?" she asked, motioning to the pizza boxes on the table.

"It should be fine. They've probably not had a proper meal since they hatched." the older Poleepkwa said, taking a slice for himself. Kai got two pieces and offered them to the children.

At first, they seemed unsure of what to do, but once they apparently got the scent of the food, their reactions were priceless. Their tiny antennae waved back and forth at amazing speed, and their mouthparts trembled. They emitted little chirping sounds, and looked hungrily at the food.

Kai handed each child a piece, and had to stifle a laugh as the slices slowly disappeared under the tendrils. They cleaned the grease and sauce off their little hands, and looked imploringly up at her for another piece.

A few minutes later, the children had eaten three pieces each, and were looking around the shop for something to entertain themselves. Kai chewed on a slice thoughtfully; she hadn't really thought the whole thing through, and felt a little guilty that part of the reason she'd asked to look after the children was out of sheer curiosity. She wished dearly that she'd given some thought to what she'd do with the two once they'd arrived.

"Kai, would you mind it if I taught them a bit before the inventory arrives?" Byron asked, as Angelo and Edgar began play a hesitant game of hide-and-seek amongst the empty shelves.

"Not at all; do you need anything?" she asked, relieved at a chance to plan something for them. She wondered what she'd do when the trucks came by with the inventory; she didn't want the kids getting squashed by a falling box of candy or something…

Darren, meanwhile, was looking out the window, watching as an MNU helicopter flew over. Kai found it interesting that they were so quiet; like the ones the military used to fly over enemy airspace…but then again, to the company, District 9 was enemy airspace. Kai left Byron to teaching the two children, while she went over to stand beside Darren.

"They've been so nervous…ever since the mothership left, security has increased tenfold. I believe that the company is getting more anxious by the day." he said quietly.

"Well, hopefully it'll get better soon…" Kai said optimistically.

"Kai… I know I just met you yesterday, but may I ask you something personal?" the nonhuman asked, turning to the dark-haired human.

"What's that?"

"Why did you come here? You're obviously from a good family; why come all the way out here and put up with all of this?" Darren asked, tilting his head a bit as he looked at her.

"I wanted to help you…all of you. The best way I could figure was to provide some jobs…" Kai said.

"Why not just donate to a charity or something?"

"Because that money never gets to– I just thought that it'd be better this way. My mom was the one who got me interested in Poleepkwa in the first place."

"How so?"

"Well, the ship landed when I was about two, and everyone on Earth was talking about the aliens inside. My mom was one of the few who wanted to give Off-worlders a chance. Most everyone else was lobbying for separating you from society, but my mom thought it'd be better to incorporate you into it."

"She must have been penalized for that." Darren observed.

"Yeah…see, my mom wasn't one of those snobby high-society ladies who had a charity just for something to do. She really believed in what she was doing. My dad was the same way, and caught a lot of crap for it, too."

"Your parents sound like good people."

"Mom was, and dad is." Kai said, smiling slightly.

They would have talked more, but a sudden noise got their attention.

"Attention Kai Validus!" a voice barked. It sounded as though someone was talking into a megaphone.

"Kai Validus, there are three trucks at the east gate. They claim to be carrying inventory for your shop. Please be aware that if you do not come to the gate to verify this, they will be turned away. You have five minutes to get to the gates. That is all." The Gebeuren grew quiet again.

"We'd better get out there…" Darren said.

"What do we do with the kids?" Kai asked Byron, who had turned toward the amplified voice, his antennae waving slowly.

"We could take them with us…" Darren suggested.

"Their parents would never forgive me if I took them out of the Gebeuren and something happened to them." Byron said.

"I don't think we should leave them here alone; not after last night…" Kai said.

"Maybe we could leave them with someone?" Darren asked.

"Do we have time to find one of your friends?" Kai asked.

"Everyone knows everyone here. Hopefully we'll find someone on our way. Either way, we'd better be off; you need our help to unload the trucks…" Darren said.

Byron told Angelo and Edgar to come along, and Kai locked the door behind them. There were a few Poleepkwa looking out their windows as the group passed, but no one on the streets to ask. They hurried to the intercom beside the gate, and Kai contacted Peters.

"Hey, I need out; that's my inventory in those trucks and I need to unload it." she said.

"All right; stand back." Peters said.

The gates rumbled to life, and Kai and the Poleepkwa stepped through.

"Hey, hey; no prawns outside the gates!" Peters said, coming out of his booth, rifle drawn. Angelo and Edgar hid behind Byron, visibly trembling.

"They're here to help me unload." Kai said simply, moving in front of the aliens.

"Look, they're not going to hang around outside the gates. That kind of thing may fly at the other entrances, but not here!" the guard insisted.

"Hey! Can we speed things up? I've got other deliveries to make today!" the driver of one of the trucks called out his window.

"Then can the trucks come into the District?" Kai asked.

"I…I guess that's up to the drivers… There's really nothing against that…" Peters said, scratching his balding head.

"What do you think?" Kai called to the driver of the truck.

"Hey, it's hot as all hell out here; you'll have to pay extra, and have prawns under control!" the driver responded.

"Fine!" Kai called back, then turned to Peters.

"You'll need to open the gate a little more for the trucks to go through." she said coolly.

Peters grumbled loudly to himself as he went over and hit the gate's switch, and it opened to its full extent. Everyone got out of the way as the huge vehicles went through the entrance.

"Hey! I'm going to get a helicopter to keep an eye on the prawns while the trucks are unloaded! If one of you bottom-feeders so much as moves an antennae, the snipers onboard will drop you without a thought!" Peters snarled, and got on his walkie-talkie.

In a couple of minutes, an MNU helicopter was hovering in the air above Kai's store, where the trucks could be seen out front.

"Come on guys…" Kai said quietly, leading her little group back to the shop. The driver of the lead truck was just hopping out of the cab when they arrived. He took one look at the group of Poleepkwa behind Kai and pulled out a gun from a holster on his belt. Apparently, just knowing that you'd go anywhere near District 9 caused people to become nervous…

"Whoa! Chill man!" Kai said, putting her hands up, the Off-worlders did the same. Edgar and Angelo grabbed each other in a frightened embrace, trembling and looking at the ground. Kai stepped in front of the two tiny creatures, who could be heard whimpering.

"Get them back! I don't want any trouble, but I'll shoot if I have to!" the driver said.

"They work in my store; they'll be helping unload… There's no need for violence today…" Kai said.

"They work for you?" the driver asked, lowering his weapon.

"Yeah… We just need to unload the stock; then I'll pay you and you can leave, and no one gets hurt, okay?"

"…Okay…"

The head driver–still holding his gun on the group–got back in the cab and got on the radio to the other two, explaining the situation. At last, he got out and went back over to Kai.

"You'll have to unload the trucks yourself; the other two aren't going near the prawns. Sorry, but this wasn't in the job description." he said.

"All right; we'll unload, then pay you…" Kai said, and the driver put his gun away, went around to the back of the truck, and opened it.

"When you get done with this one, I'll open the other two. The drivers said that they wouldn't set one foot in prawn town; not for all the money you've got."

"Okay…" Kai replied. The driver nodded, then went to the back of his truck and opened it for them, before going back to the front and getting in the cab. He pulled out a local newspaper to read while he waited. The nonhumans had put their hands down, and Byron came over to Kai.

"Kai, I need the keys to the shop; the children shouldn't be running around while we're busy with this." he said.

"Right." Kai agreed, and handed him the keys. He took the kids inside, and came back a moment later and gave her the keys back.

"Let's get to work…" Kai said, and they all walked to the back to see what had to be done.

"This'll take forever…" the human said, seeing all the items inside.

There were dozens of boxes in back; stacked almost to the ceiling. Pallets of soda, boxes of everything from toilet paper to cat food could be found sitting in neat rows. There was so much; and this was only truck one!

"There are a couple of dollies inside the store; I'll go get them…" Kai said, and hurried to the shop.

She went in through the back way, leaving the door open for them to get back into the stock room, and got the two dollies. Hurrying back outside, she gave one to each Poleepkwa.

"Kai, I have an idea…" Byron volunteered.

"I'll take any suggestion." she replied.

"Well, how about enlisting the help of the others? If you give them a can of cat food or two, I'm sure they'd be glad to aid you." the older alien suggested.

"He's right; and we'll get done a lot faster that way." Darren agreed, looking up at the helicopter.

"All right; but one of you has to go and get the others, I don't know anyone here." Kai said.

"I'll go." Darren said, and took off quickly.

_Ten minutes later…_

Darren returned, the leader of a group of three other Poleepkwa. These were the standard sandy brown color, wearing various pieces of clothing and rags.

"Kai, this is Sam, Maxwell, and Martin. They've agreed to help in exchange for two cans each." Darren said, and the group behind him peered at Kai almost as timidly as the two children.

"Deal." Kai said simply, and the nonhumans reacted immediately.

_Three hours later…_

It had only taken three hours for the group of five Poleepkwa to empty all three trucks. Kai was absolutely amazed that the three Darren had brought worked so hard for cat food, but they had. She marveled at how efficiently they worked as a team when they wanted to. The trucks had taken off as soon as the last box was unloaded and Kai had paid, barely stopping for Peters to open the gate. The helicopter had gone as well, and a sense of peace was returning to the Gebeuren.

Kai now distributed the cans to each person, throwing in an extra one for the quickness of the job. The nonhumans gave their thanks, before returning to their homes to enjoy their cat food. For the heck of it, she gave Byron and Darren some too, but not the children, as Byron said they were too young.

"It's not good for them." Darren agreed, so Kai gave them some of her leftover pizza instead.

Now all needed to be done was to take the inventory and put it on the shelves…


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**I took some liberties with describing the Off-worlders' homeworld.**

**Chapter 12**

**In which everyone takes inventory and Kai learns about the Poleepkwa homeworld**

"Byron, when I hired you, I had no idea that you'd have so much to do…" Kai muttered, looking at the stacks upon stacks of boxes piled in every available space in the store.

"Don't worry; it's only like this because this is the first time. There won't be so much in the future." the older Poleepkwa said, looking around the room.

"Well, we'd better get started." Kai said, unexcitedly.

"We?" Byron asked.

"You're not doing this alone; it'll take forever." the human said, handing the nonhuman a clipboard on which were several papers with the inventory printed on them. There were three of these; one for each truck, and the third clipboard was handed to Darren.

"Okay, let's start… I've got canned stuff, frozen stuff, dairy, and…bread." Kai said.

"I've got snack foods, various culinary ingredients, cereals, and everyday items." Darren called out.

"I've got candy items, soft drinks, stationary supplies, pet food, meat, and…ugh!" Byron said, making a disgusted face.

"What?" Kai asked, coming over to see what was bothering the older being.

"Personal and feminine hygiene products." he read off.

"Huh… I guess…for a Poleepkwa…those things would be weird…" Kai said quietly.

"Yes…" Byron agreed.

"Ah, trade me…big baby…" Kai muttered, switching the clipboards.

A scuffling got the attention of the three adults, and they turned to see Angelo and Edgar playing hide-and-seek amongst the stacks of boxes.

"What do we do with these two?" Kai asked, walking over to peer down at the kids, who looked up at her with their big eyes and gave her a Poleepkwa smile.

"Perhaps they could help?" Darren suggested.

"They're too little; they can't lift anything yet." Kai said.

"They certainly can't go outside…" Byron said thoughtfully.

"Hey, I've got an idea…" Kai spoke up, and went over to one of the tables, where she took out her laptop.

"What are you doing?" Byron asked, coming over to join her. Darren soon joined the other two, followed by the kids, who didn't like to be left out.

"I'm going to let them watch something to keep them occupied for awhile." the human explained, surfing through a list of available features. She passed up political and social commentaries, documentaries on serial killers and natural disasters, until she found the nature section.

"Hey, what do you think; they've got Galapagos tortoises, parrots, iguanas, flowers of the world, caves, dinosaurs, snakes, animals of the Serengeti and insects." Kai suggested.

"Nothing too violent…" Darren reminded her.

"Okay, so that takes care of dinosaurs, snakes, and animals of the Serengeti… What about the tortoises?"

"Two hours long…that should give us some time." Byron said.

"Okay then… Kids, get over here…" the human called, and the children responded by hopping up onto a chair and looking at her questioningly.

"All right; we're going to be working, so you get to watch this for awhile, okay?"

The two nodded, and Kai went to the counter and got them each another piece of pizza, before picking up her clipboard and going into the midst of the piles of boxes.

"All right… Here's how this works; one of us will call out their list, and the other two will find said items. I made sure that all the snacks and the like were piled up together, and all the frozen stuff's in the rooms behind the freezer. Now, who calls out their list first?"

They finally had to draw straws, with Byron getting first calling duty.

"Three cases of creamed corn…" Byron called out.

"Three cases of creamed corn." Kai confirmed.

"Fifteen cases of cat food…"

"Fourteen cases; I used one to pay the movers."

"All right… Three cases of sweet peas…"

"Three cases of sweet peas." Darren called out.

This went on uninterrupted, until Angelo came into the room and gently tugged on Kai's pants leg for attention.

"Your movie must be over, huh?" Kai guessed, and the tiny alien nodded.

"You want to watch something else?" she asked, getting another nod.

"Then let's find something else… Darren, Byron; take a break!" She called out, following Angelo back to the table. Edgar had fallen asleep with his head in his arms, and was doing what could only be described as snoring.

Kai picked the documentary about parrots, before patting Angelo's head and going back into the jungle of boxes.

She found Darren and Byron sitting in chairs that they'd taken from another table, talking amongst themselves.

"Do either of you want some water or something?" Kai asked.

"That would be nice…thank you." Darren said, sounding almost confused by the idea of a human bringing him something for a change.

Kai hurried off and returned with three big cups of water (the cups were already counted in the inventory), which she distributed. She also took one to Angelo and Edgar, who thanked her quietly before going back to their show, with Kai reminding them to be careful with water around the laptop.

"So, is working here better than your old jobs?" she asked, pulling a chair over to join the Poleepkwa.

"Immensely; I have to admit that I won't miss the mines at all." Darren said, setting his cup on a nearby box.

"I will miss teaching, but at least I'll still get the opportunity. The MNU wants the next generation to be ignorant...complacent…but I'll not let that happen in my lifetime! Already I can see it in the District; the younger generation is becoming ignorant and violent…the very thing the company wants." Byron said, a little mournfully.

"It's probably so they can convince the world that what they're doing is for the best… Keep the dangerous aliens away from the humans..." Darren agreed darkly.

"If and when the ship comes back… What then?" Kai asked, keeping her voice down.

"Then…we'll all go home…" Byron said wishfully.

"What's your homeworld like?"

"Well," Byron said, studying the human as though deciding whether it was safe to tell her about it or not, "it's much, much larger than Earth.

There are about seven moons in orbit above the planet…and once every thousand years they all align themselves. It's said that any child hatched on that night is destined to for great renown. There are huge forests, and vast, shallow oceans full of warm water and many islands. There is only one large continent, but there are quite a few of what you'd call countries. The whole planet is relatively warm year-round, and it rains for half a year in some places." Byron reminisced.

"Sounds like paradise…" Kai said dreamily.

"We had–have–cities all over the planet… They weren't like your cities though… Our most important cities are made of huge domed buildings, and we've got special botanical gardens that are made to float in the air, to be closer to the sun, you see. We've got many, many universities and schools in the bigger city, where our younglings are educated in history both ecclesiastical and secular. The architecture of the other cities varies depending on the countries in which they stand; but some are vaguely akin to the architecture of some of Earth's ancient structures. There are even a couple of cities that float on the sea; but these are mainly stopping points between some of the larger islands."

"Wow…what about you, Darren? Did you come from a different part of the planet or something?" Kai asked, noticing that the younger Poleepkwa had been quiet all that time.

'I was very young when the ship brought us from our homeworld. I don't remember much before that; just bits and pieces." Darren replied shortly.

"How old were you when you arrived on Earth?" the human asked.

"Let's see… I was about seven when we departed…we traveled for five years…so…twelve…hmm..." Darren figured up.

"So, you're like, thirty-two?" Kai asked.

"In human years, yes; but I'm quite young for a Poleepkwa." Darren informed her.

"How long do Off-worlders live?"

"Well… I'd say…about three human lifetimes." Byron answered.

"Whoa…that's about three hundred years… So you'd be middle aged, Byron?"

"I'm technically still in my prime!" Byron defended.

"Okay, okay… Let's get back to work…before Byron pops an antenna out of place…" Kai said, looking at the clock on her cell phone. By this time, it was about two, and they'd barely accomplished anything.

"Ouch…" Byron said, instinctively touching his antenna.

They put their chairs back in their places and got back to work, determined to get as much as possible done in the two hours they had before the Off-worlders were to go home.

The three of them worked for another hour; finally getting all the items accounted for. Kai finished up by paying for the cat food she'd given to the Poleepkwa movers, and also for some ice that she put on Darren's secondary arm.

"Too bad you don't have a freezer; you could keep a bag in it for your arm…" Kai muttered, putting some ice in a towel and applying it to the appendage, which had stopped swelling a little.

"Well, usually it's a choice between running water and electricity; my partner and I chose running water." The Poleepkwa informed her, adjusting the icepack.

"Damn MNU…" Kai muttered.

The human had given Byron the last hour of the day to teach the kids, who were tired from all the food they'd eaten that day. Kai wondered if it was a good idea to have given them all that fatty, greasy food, but she'd been reassured that it wouldn't hurt them.

"_After being made to eat garbage all their lives, pizza probably would be like heaven for them."_ Kai thought.

Byron could be heard wrapping up his lesson; telling the children to read the next chapter and do the work in their workbooks. Apparently, the teacher had managed to keep the children's workbooks and had given them to their parents. They did the work, which they brought to Byron for grading.

Angelo and Edgar went to run amongst the boxes again; Kai having told them to keep clear of the glass stuff, while Byron stood and stretched.

"What exactly do you teach them?" the human asked, as the older being put some papers in his briefcase.

"Before the school was shut down, the MNU had me teaching what was basically a watered-down version of what human children learn in grade school. Basic reading and mathematics. Now, I can begin teaching them about our culture and language. I'm still teaching them English and such; but I'm not treating them like they're less intelligent than they are. Those two are small; but they're very smart, as are all our offspring, if given the chance."

"I'm sure they will…they're cute, you know?"

"They're terribly small for their ages… They don't get enough food, and they're nervous all the time. Once we're back on our homeworld, they can get a proper education and medical treatment… Until then, we'll have to hope that they'll get by without too much more trouble." Byron said, watching as Edgar squeaked when Angelo found him behind a carton of chocolate bars.

"I really hope so; they deserve better…you all do."

"Kai, Byron; I see Edgar's parents at the door!" Darren called over a stack of dried noodle boxes.

"Okay, thanks! Edgar…come here…" Kai called, and the little Off-worlder was soon standing at her feet, looking up inquiringly.

"Come on, kid; it's time to go home…" she said, bending down. She wasn't sure if he'd let her pick him up, but attempted it anyway. To her surprise, he made no protests, and even laid his head on her shoulder when she got him into her arms. He was very light; only about half the weight of a human child, and Kai couldn't help noticing how fragile he seemed.

In a moment, the door's bell could be heard and Erin and James Page entered the shop. Kai went over to meet them.

"Hey… He's ready to go…" the human said, handing the little Off-worlder over to Erin, who touched antennae with his child.

"He must really like you; he usually scurries away from humans." James observed.

"Did he behave?" Erin asked.

"Like an angel; they were both a delight… Is Angelo's father going to be by soon?"

"He should be along shortly… Does he have any work to do?" Erin asked, and Kai realized that he was speaking to Byron, who was coming up behind her.

"Yes; he needs to read chapter four and answer the summary questions. He'll be having a test the day after tomorrow on his long division."

"Very well; we'll make sure he minds his studies. Do we owe you anything, Ms. Validus?" James asked.

"Absolutely not! He and Angelo were a joy to have around! Much better manners than most human children their age… Will you be bringing them back tomorrow?"

"Yes…that sounds lovely. Well, good night, Kai Validus…" Erin said, adjusting his child to be carried by his secondary arms. His partner nodded a goodbye, and the two departed.

"Don't they usually get off of work at five?" Darren asked, coming over to stand beside Byron.

"I suppose that they were worried about their child…" the other nonhuman said, watching as the Pages disappeared around a corner.

"You mean that they were worrying about leaving their kid with a human all day and skipped out on work to see how it was going." Kai stated, keeping her voice down so Angelo couldn't hear. Now that Edgar had gone, the little alien was sitting on one of the boxes, looking around the room; Kai resolved to find something for him to do.

"Well, I can't blame them for being worried; humans haven't been kind to us…and Edgar means so much to them…" Byron said.

"After what happened to their first, I don't blame them, either." Darren said cryptically.

"What happened?" Kai asked.

"Don't repeat this; the Pages don't like to talk about it, all right?" Byron said, lowering his voice.

"Yeah…whatever you say…"

"Well, the Pages came here from the District about ten years ago. They had their money and papers in order, as must those who relocate here…but there was a problem…"

"What?" Kai asked.

"Well, at the time, there was a policy in place that said that if Poleepkwa moving to the Gebeuren had hatchlings on the way, they could bring them for a fee; provided that the eggs were registered."

"And theirs wasn't?"

"It was; but the policy was cancelled while they were moving into the Gebeuren. Their egg was therefore deemed unlicensed in the Gebeuren and was subsequently "aborted" by the company's population-control unit. Erin took it especially hard; he'd wanted children for so long… Well…after a couple of years, the couple saved up enough to apply for another license; and got it…Edgar is the result." Byron concluded.

"That's so sad…" Kai said quietly.

"Everyone here has their own sad tale. You don't get into the Gebeuren without some deep sacrifice; the company makes sure of it." Darren said sagely.

Kai was about to reply, when the sound of the shop's entry bell made them all jump.


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 13**

**In which Kai sends Angelo home and makes yet another trip into town to get her stuff, thanks to her lack of planning skills**

"Christ!" Kai cried, putting a hand to her chest, while the two Poleepkwa did their own version of this; laying their antennae flat against their heads and moving their mouthparts nervously.

"Oh, it's Jesse…" Byron said, going over to let the Poleepkwa in. He was covered in dirt and grime; signs of one who worked in the local mineral mines.

"Hey, Mr. Crane…" Kai called, now over her shock. She wondered if "Mr." was the right thing to call a being who didn't technically have a gender.

"Hello… I came home early for my son; I trust that he's all right?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, he's fine… Let me go get him for you…" Kai said, going over into the cardboard jungle to find Angelo.

The little Nonhuman had fallen asleep on a pile of dog food bags. He's apparently gotten bored without Edgar, and was tired from all the playing and food.

"Found him!" she called, and gently picked him up to take him to his father.

"He's just a little tired…" the human said, handing the child to his father, who, like Erin, used his smaller arms to support his offspring, leaving his primary appendages free.

"He hasn't slept so soundly since before the MNU started sending helicopters to patrol the Gebeuren at night… Did he behave?" Jesse asked, as Angelo moved to make himself more comfortable in his father's arms.

"Absolutely. I was happy to watch him!" Kai said, gently patting Angelo's little head, biting her lip at the "Property of MNU" stamp. The motion woke the little alien up, and he blinked sleepily at his father.

"Father? Why are you here? The sun's still out…" Angelo yawned. From this, Kai concluded that Jesse's job probably lasted much later than three o'clock.

"I got off work early. Did you have fun today?" he asked.

"Uh-huh… Kai's nice; she gave us food…lots of food! And me and Edgar watched movies about turtles and birds, and we played, and we learned from Byron, and then Edgar's daddies came to get him, and then I fell asleep, and now you're here to get me." Angelo replied, in typical child fashion.

"You fed him? And you entertained him?" Jesse asked, looking oddly at Kai.

"Yeah… I gave the kids some pizza and let them watch nature documentaries. Is that okay?"

"Y-yes… Thank you…" the Poleepkwa said quietly.

"Did I tell you that Kai gave us food? It was really good!"

"Sounds like you had a good day…"

"Yeah! We had to do long division and I don't like that, though… Can I come back tomorrow?"Angelo asked.

"All right then…" Jesse said, touching antennae with his child.

"He's got a long division test coming up soon." Byron said.

"I'll make sure he studies for it… Well, Kai Validus; it seems as though you did a good job watching my child. I've not seen him so happy in a long time. Do I owe you any money?"

"No, no… I was happy to keep an eye on him." Kai said.

"Well then, I'll have him over at about eight tomorrow, is that acceptable?"

"Perfectly fine with me." Kai agreed.

"All right then… I'll see you tomorrow. Come on, Angelo; you need a nap…" Jesse said quietly to his child, who made himself more comfortable in his father's arms. He bade Kai goodbye, before leaving the shop, disappearing around a nearby house.

"Is it just me, or is there a certain element of distrust between Mr. Crane and me? Though, I guess I can't blame the guy; after all the crap he's got to go through on a daily basis. If I had to leave my kid in the care of a complete stranger, I'd probably be nervous, too…" Kai said thoughtfully.

"He's usually not so hostile; he'll warm up to you eventually." Byron assured gently.

"Until then, I can at least make him realize that not all humans are complete dicks…about 99 percent of the populace, maybe, but not all." Kai pointed out.

"You've convinced me." Darren said quietly.

There was a strange silence in the room for a moment, before Byron cleared his throat–or did the Poleepkwa equivalent of the gesture.

The awkward silence was further pushed aside when Kai's cell phone rang, again startling them. Looking at the number, the human saw that it was the courier company who was in charge of getting the bulk of her clothes to South Africa. Another lack of planning on her part had meant that Kai hadn't brought her clothes with her on the plane over from California, so she'd had to send for her bags.

"Hello? Oh? Yeah, that's great! I'll be over to get it right away! Oh? You close when? Okay, I'm coming right now!" Kai said, and hung up the phone.

"Sorry guys… Would it be too much to ask you to watch the place so I can go get my clothes and stuff? If I don't go now, I can't get my things until tomorrow, and I'll have to sleep in my clothes again." Kai said, looking pleadingly at the two Poleepkwa.

"It's all right, Kai; we can watch the place until you return." Darren replied.

"It's fine with me; the company doesn't like us getting off early, anyway." Byron agreed.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You guys are so awesome! I'll be back ASAP! Help yourselves to some cat food or something, it's the least I can do!" Kai said, grabbing her bag and heading to the door, then turning and throwing the keys to Byron.

"I'll tell Peters that you're watching the place so you don't get in trouble…" she said.

"Thank you." the two Poleepkwa said, and Kai went out the door.

Kai hurried down the dusty streets, hoping that she could get a cab before the courier's office closed. She didn't think that she could stand another night of sleeping in her clothes. She was glad that her belongings included a few blankets and pillows, which would be far better than sleeping on the bare floor.

"Peters…" Kai said, pushing the intercom button.

"You need out again?"

"Yeah."

"You leaving the prawns in charge of your shop?"

"Yeah, the _Poleepkwa_ are watching the place." she replied, wishing the guy would at least humor her.

"All right then; but don't blame me if they wreck the place. Remember, you've actually got merchandise in there now."

"I'll risk it." Kai said, between clenched teeth.

The gates opened, while Kai opened her phone and called the Happy Travels Cab Company and asked for Napoleon Bongani.

"He'll be there in a few minutes." the woman at the company said.

Kai thanked her and hung up the phone, wishing that Peters would stop staring at her ass.

After about ten minutes, the cab pulled up and Kai got in, saying hi to Bongani as she did so.

"Where do you need to go now?" he asked.

"The Air Africa Courier Company; and step on it…that guy creeps me out." the dark-haired girl muttered.

"I can see that." the older man said, looking at Peters out of the corner of his eye.

He drove off, and Kai looked in her wallet for money.

"Uh-oh…" she muttered.

"I hope that doesn't have anything to do with my fee?"

"Kind of…but if you could take me by an ATM, I can pay you no problem." Kai said, hoping that the man would be sympathetic to her problem.

"All right… There's one at the store coming up. No offense, but I'd have thought someone with your kind of money would run out." he observed.

"I usually don't; but I've had to use it a lot more than normal these past couple of days." Kai replied.

They came up to the store, and Kai went in to find the ATM. A friendly clerk told her where the machine was, and Kai was glad that the thing could be programmed into English. Getting her cash and the receipt, she quickly purchased a large bottle of water and went back out to the cab, where she handed Bongani his money.

A few minutes later, they were in front of the Air Africa Courier Company.

"I'll be back in a few minutes; I just have to get my stuff." Kai said.

"They wouldn't let you take it on the plane over here?" he asked skeptically.

"I'm not good at planning ahead." Kai stated flatly, before heading into the building.

The place was a massive stockpile of wooden crates, boxes, bags, and even a couple of shipping containers. Kai, luckily, was able to find the counter in only ten minutes. On her way, she passed crates that had address labels from what looked like every country. In the first two minutes alone, she saw writing in English, Nguni, Swahili, German, Dutch, and Japanese. There were even a couple of crates with the MNU logo stamped on them; Kai resisted the urge to kick these.

"May I help you?" a good-looking young man in a khaki uniform asked, as the American got up to the counter.

"Yes, I'm here to pick up some luggage." she replied, avoiding using the word "stuff", which sounded suspicious in her mind.

"Name?" he asked.

"Kai Validus."

"All right…I see you on the list… Do you have the slip you received when you shipped your goods?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah…here it is." Kai said, reaching into her pocket for the crumpled piece of pink paper she'd been carrying around with her.

The man looked at the paper carefully, asked Kai for two forms of personal ID and, once it was assured that she was who she said she was, went to an unseen room to collect her things.

He came back a moment later, accompanied by two stout men who were pushing a large cart, on which were her things. There were three duffle bags, a few suitcases, and one large crate, in which Kai knew were several boxes and cases.

"Do you need help with your items, Ms. Validus?" the man in the khakis asked.

"Uh… Do you think you could put the crate on or in a taxi cab?" Kai asked.

"I doubt it; not with the rest of this, ma'am…but for a small fee, we could bring your belongings to your home or office." one of the movers said.

"Really? Well, let's say I'm living in the Gebeuren sector of District 9; could you still follow the cab with my stuff?" she asked.

The three men put their heads together for a minute, conversing like a football team in a huddle. Occasionally looking back at her. She caught the words "prawn" and "MNU" a couple of times, before they turned to her.

"We'll do it; but we'll have to raise our fee. There's a certain level of danger involved, you see." the khaki man said, and the two movers nodded in agreement.

"Of course… Come on, then… I'm going to assume that you won't be going beyond the entrance to the District, yes?"

"You assume correctly, ma'am. It's not worth my life going into that Godforsaken place; I don't care how much you'd pay us." one of the movers confirmed.

"Fair enough." Kai replied, and wrote out a check for the expense. She then waited as the two took her things to a truck. She hurried out to the cab to inform Bongani, who had lit up a cigar and was reading the paper while he waited. She made a "hmm" noise when she saw that a picture of Wilkus van de Merwe was on the front page. "Have You Seen This Man?" it read.

"Mr. Bongani…" Kai said, and the older man looked up.

"Crazy girl; where's your stuff?" he asked, looking around outside the window.

"There's too much of it to fit in the cab, so they're gonna follow us back to the District." Kai informed him, opening the door and sliding into the backseat.

"Hey, I get paid either way." Bongani replied, putting his paper away, before opening the door, putting his cigar out in the dirt, and putting it into his shirt pocket.

In a few minutes, a large brown mail truck pulled out of a nearby garage and pulled up behind them. Bongani took this as his cue, and started the cab.

They drove through the streets, and Kai noticed a group of people about her age standing in front of a store.

"Local gang members." Bongani said, driving quickly by them.

"Never seen those guys out in daylight before, though." the man said thoughtfully.

"Is something going on then?" Kai asked, not familiar with gangs of any kind; she was always a solo person, with a couple of good friends who knew when to keep their distance.

"War over territory, maybe; I'll have to call and tell the wife to keep the kids inside tonight…"

"You can use my cell phone when we get to the Gebeuren." Kai said, hoping that Bongani was wrong.

"Thanks." he replied, gratitude evident in his voice.

They eventually pulled up to the gate, and Kai handed Bongani her phone and got out to talk to Peters. Her intention was to get Byron and Darren to help her with her things. She hoped that it would go more smoothly than the morning's delivery.

"Hey, I need to get in right quick." she said, noticing that Peters was reading what had to be a porn magazine.

"Fine." He said, and, still ogling the magazine, pushed the button to open the gate. She was glad to see that both hands were visible.

Kai went back over to the cab, where Bongani handed her back the phone.

"I've got to get home; there were a couple of those punks spotted cruising the street earlier today. We're going to go stay with relatives for a few days." the man said, sounding urgent.

"I understand." Kai replied, and paid him before he drove quickly away.

She walked over to the truck and told the driver that she'd be a moment. Hurrying through the gate, she went directly to the store, pushing open the door and calling for her employees.

"Guys! I need your help with something, please!"

The two Poleepkwa responded immediately, and, when Kai told them what needed to be done, they got out the dollies and followed her.

The movers had gotten her things out of the truck, and got quickly back in, locking the doors, when the Nonhumans showed themselves. Peters was about to say something about them being outside the gate, but twenty rand kept him quiet.

Using the dollies, Darren and Byron managed to get Kai's various belongings into the Gebeuren, the gate closing behind them. Darren had the larger crate on his dolly, and Kai was carrying two duffle bags, Byron carried one, and Byron carried the rest.

They eventually made their way to the shop, where Kai unlocked the door. The air conditioning felt good on her skin, but not as good as a shower and fresh clothes would.

"Where do you want us to put these things?" Byron asked.

"My room's upstairs; will you be able to get it up there?" Kai asked. The staircase wasn't really narrow; but getting the heavy crate up it would be an impressive feat.

"We can manage it." the older Nonhuman replied. They carried the lighter things up first, depositing them in the corner of Kai's bedroom, before returning to the ground floor for the large crate.

A few minutes later, the crate was being hauled upstairs; Darren on one side, Byron on the other. They seemed to be handling it well, and Kai stayed out of their way to avoid accidents.

Finally, the enormous box joined its fellow containers in the corner of Kai's room. She now wished that she'd asked to borrow a crowbar…

"Any way to open this?" she asked Darren, half serious.

"Maybe…" he replied, and together he and Byron began to pry one side of the crate open, using nothing but brute strength. At last, the side came cleanly off, letting lose an avalanche of foam packing pellets.

"Thank you!" Kai said gratefully, looking at her newly liberated belongings, which had descended onto the floor in the foam avalanche.

"Don't worry about it." the two Nonhumans said together.

"Well, you guys definitely deserve to go home now!" Kai said, looking at the nonhumans.

A few minutes later, the two were heading home, each holding a package of raw steaks and a couple of cans of cat food. Kai watched them go, as the sun began to sink behind the large steel fences. She hadn't realized that it was getting so late.

Locking the doors, she checked the back door and headed upstairs to her room. Sighing, she grabbed a trash bag and began to pick up the foam pellets. Luckily, this didn't take more than an hour, and listening to a J-rock station on the laptop didn't hurt.

At last, she began to dig through her bags, selecting a soft blue tank top and shorts. Taking a quick shower, she put on the nightclothes, sighing at the nice feel of the clothes against her clean skin, and thinking sadly of how Edgar and Angelo had nothing really comfortable to wear. She made a note in her mind to either buy or make them some suitable clothes.

Finally, she became tired and, putting her phone and laptop on their respective chargers, got her pillow and blanket out of the crate and laid down.

She was just drifting off, when she heard something that could only have been gunshots in the distance. The sounds came closer and closer, finally sounding as though the wielders were right outside the gate, before the night eventually became quiet again.

It was a long time before Kai fell into an uneasy sleep.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Okay, recently I got a review with some stuff that kind of made me think about my character, so I'm going to going to **

**Chapter 14**

Kai was lying quietly on the floor, her mind going over whether or not to wake up. She finally decided to just get up and, looking at the clock, saw that it was only six in the morning.

Sighing, she got up and folded her blanket and put it and her pillow in the corner of the room. Taking a shower, she changed into a pair of brown jeans and a black t-shirt. Still groggy, she walked downstairs, intending on getting some sort of sweet breakfast junk food, when she heard someone knocking at the door. As she drew closer, she noticed that the knocking became a little more urgent, and as she drew closer, she could see that it was Erin, holding Edgar in his arms.

Kai yawned and opened the door, wondering what in the name of anime the Poleepkwa wanted so early in the morning.

"Erin? Whatsit?" she muttered, rubbing some of the tiredness from her eyes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Ms. Validus! I hate to ask you this, but could you possibly take Edgar a little early today?" Erin asked, sounding as tired as Kai was.

"Sure, no problem, I'd be happy to… What's going on? I thought Poleepkwa weren't supposed to be out this early?" she replied, noticing that a few nonhumans were on the streets, along with a couple of black-clad MNU enforcers.

"Normally, no; but there was some trouble with the local gangs last night, and they want to question us before we got to work." Erin explained, handing a still-sleeping Edgar to Kai.

"No…too sleepy…" the tiny alien muttered, grabbing a handful of Kai's shirt for comfort, before turning away from the rising sun.

"What do they want to question you for?" the human asked, adjusting the child so as not to end up dropping him.

"To make life just a tiny bit more unbearable for us, I suppose… Oh, will you please give this to Byron? I have to go now, I'm afraid; they're going to take head count, and they only gave me ten minutes to drop Edgar off here." Erin replied, before handing Kai a piece of paper with childish writing on it, and hurriedly touched antennae with his groggy son, before bidding her goodbye and rushing off.

Kai put the homework on a nearby table, and was about to go find some breakfast, when another knock got her attention. She wasn't completely surprised to see Jesse Crane standing there, holding a semi-conscious Angelo in his arms.

"Head count and questions before work, yeah?" she asked, opening the door to let the Poleepkwa in.

"I see Erin and James have been by." he observed, nodding to Edgar.

"Just Erin. Uh, can you hold him for a second?" the human asked handing Edgar to Jesse, and hurried up to her room, where she grabbed an extra blanket and two pillows, which she carried downstairs to a room that was apparently supposed to be some kind of break room, but was currently home to a great deal of boxes.

Folding the blanket over, she put it on the floor for the two Nonhumans, adding the pillows and calling back to Jesse.

"Okay, bring them in here!"

Jesse did, and gently deposited the two on the pallet, where Kai covered them up and the two left them to sleep.

"They're cute…" she said, looking back at them.

"Ms. Validus… I must admit that I'm more than a little surprised that you're so willing to help us. Most humans…" Jesse's voice trailed off.

"Treat you like crap 24/7?" Kai finished.

"Basically. Thank you for taking Angelo so early. Oh, and could you give Byron Angelo's homework?" the Poleepkwa asked, handing her his son's piece of homework, before Kai led him out.

"No problem! Good luck with your interrogation…" the human said, and the Nonhuman laughed at the dark humor before heading out into the Gebeuren.

Left on her own, Kai took both the children's homework and put it on the counter, then went to get some bad-for-you breakfast food, making sure that there were some tender steaks in the freezers for the kids when they awoke (the pizza had all been eaten the day before).

"Guess Byron and Darren are getting questioned, too." she thought, as she opened a box of breakfast pastries and munched on it. Suddenly remembering the cat food and other things from the store, Kai rushed upstairs and got her wallet to pay for them. Once she'd rung up the amount, she put the money in the register and locked it back, making a mental note not to forget again.

Looking at the box that the pastries had come from, Kai decided that it might be best to get a head start on putting the stock on the shelves. Going over to the box, she sighed and began arranging things in the store.

She worked on this for an hour, until a noise got her attention. Noticing that it was coming from the break room, she figured that the kids had woken up. Leaving a newly-open case of chocolate crème-filled cakes on the shelf, she went in back to see how the little Nonhumans were doing.

"Angelo? Edgar?" she called softly.

"Kai!" a little voice chirped, and a little head popped up from behind a box. In a moment, Edgar and Angelo were in front of the human, each trying to get her attention.

"Kai! What happened? I went to bed at home, then woke up here! Where's my daddy?" Angelo chirped.

"Me too! Me too! Where are my daddies?" Edgar asked, looking around nervously and wringing his hands.

"Calm down; they had to leave you here because the MNU had something for them to do. They'll be back later on today." Kai reassured them, and they seemed to calm down.

"Oh…" the two said together, seeming to understand what she was saying.

"Are either of you hungry?" she asked a moment later, and the children gave her their strange smiles.

A few minutes later, Angelo and Edgar were seated at the table, eating tenderized steaks from paper plates and trilling happily. Kai continued to stock the shelves, having already gotten through two cases of snacks and on her first case of peas.

She heard another knock at the door, and went over to investigate. It was Darren and Byron, who were looking almost as sleepy as Edgar and Angelo had been.

"Eight already?" the human asked, as her employees trudged into the store yawning as they did so.

"Yes; and no sleep until four…" Darren muttered, taking a seat at a table.

"Nothing to be done about it now; the MNU gets what the MNU wants." Byron replied, taking out his briefcase to get Edgar and Angelo's lessons ready.

"Are you guys hungry? I've got meat here…" Kai offered. The two Poleepkwa nodded and accepted the food. They ate in silence for awhile, until the human happened to look over to one of the tables and see the papers the kids' parents had left.

"Hey, Byron, that reminds me; here's the kids' homework." Kai remembered, giving the Poleepkwa the two papers.

"Ah! Looks like you're improving on your division after all, Angelo!" the teacher said to his student, who was still nibbling on a piece of steak.

"How 'bout me, Mr. Byron?" Edgar asked. Kai noticed that they were both covered in blood from the steaks, and got a rag to clean them off, throwing away the empty plates as she went.

"You did very well too, Edgar."

"Yay!" Edgar chirped, as Kai came back over and wiped his face. She handed another rag to each of the adults, before taking the empty steak packages to the garbage.

"Hey Darren, what exactly did the company want with everyone?" the human asked, moving to Angelo.

"Later." Darren answered, inclining his head in the direction of the two children. Kai nodded quietly, and took the rags to the bathroom to rinse it out.

"Kai, did you start putting the inventory on the shelves by yourself?" Byron asked, taking a look around the store.

"Yeah, I got up early; didn't sleep well last night." the human called.

"We'll help you with that; it's got to be easier than taking stock of all these items." Darren said, as Kai came back in the room.

"That's what I'm paying you for." she answered, giving the younger Poleepkwa a pat on the shoulder.

"We can help!" Edgar chirped.

"Yeah! We're strong too!" Angelo agreed, puffing out his chest.

"All right then; you can help me put these away." Kai said, taking them over to see the box of snack cakes.

"Just put them right here with the others, okay?" she told them, indicating where the food should go.

Edgar picked up a carton of the snacks, having to use both hands, and put it neatly with the others. Angelo did the same a moment later.

"Like that?" they asked together.

"Yep; just like that." Kai said, patting their heads. The two of them then commenced to putting the rest of the cartons on the shelf, leaving the human to attend to other matters.

"I hope their parents don't think I'm forcing them to work here." she muttered, coming back to grab a box of toilet paper.

"They're lifting cardboard cartons; it's hardly labor intensive." Darren quipped.

"Why Darren; was that a _joke_?" Byron asked, raising an eyebrow–or whatever Nonhumans had up there.

"I didn't get enough sleep last night." Darren retorted.

"Neither did I, but we've got to grin and bear it… Come on; let's start putting all these things away." Byron replied, getting up and putting his papers away, before picking up another box, this one containing cereal.

Darren yawned and began helping Kai with the toilet paper.

A couple of hours later, a great deal of the stock was on the shelves, thanks to the combined efforts of the four aliens and one human.

"It's only nine thirty…crap…" Kai whined, slumping down into a chair.

"Kai, would it be all right if I took a break and taught these two for a bit?" Byron asked, as Angelo and Edgar played amongst the empty boxes. They'd helped for awhile, before becoming bored and gradually shifting their efforts to seeing if they could fit into the boxes with the lid closed. Kai couldn't blame them; they were kids, and they got bored easily.

"Go ahead. Darren; you can chill for awhile too." the human replied, putting her head down.

"Thank you." Darren replied, coming over to join her.

"So, what were all those MNU guys doing out in the streets this morning?" the human asked, keeping her voice down. Byron was teaching Edgar and Angelo a couple of tables away, and she didn't want the kids worrying or anything.

"It seems as though there's been some trouble between a few of the local gangs, and it finally came to a head last night. The winners of the dispute apparently celebrated their victory by shooting along the fence of the Gebeuren and up into the air. Some civilians were injured, but no one was killed; except, of course, for the ones fighting in the dispute."

"So why are they questioning the Nonhumans?" Kai asked.

"They want to know if we'd heard any talk of the war or subsequent antics, or if we had anything to do with it. There were a couple of MNU vehicles stolen, so they had reason to believe it was us." Darren explained.

"But how? You can't even get out of this place unless you use the intercoms to get the gates open." Kai recalled.

"It comes with the territory of being a Poleepkwa on Earth; you're responsible for every act of evil that has, is, or will ever happen."

"Stupid MNU…" Kai muttered.

"You seem to hate them, yet they're the ones letting you stay here." Darren observed.

"They let me stay here because my dad is…well, my dad." Kai said quietly.

"But you came here anyway."

"I came here to help the residents of District 9 as much as I could. I know I could have just sent money, but it almost never gets to the people it's supposed to help. I could have sent food, or blankets or whatever; but I figured that creating a few jobs would help more."

"And it did; this is easier and far more lucrative than the mines." Darren assured her.

"But I want to do more! I know it's nothing like actually living here, but I've seen the documentaries about this place, and heard the testimonies of people who visited… I'll be honest with you; I don't know if I believe in heaven…but this has to be hell."

"And I've known you for less than three days; but you've already shown us more kindness than we've seen since we arrived here. Perhaps you can't help everyone right now; but you seem like you've got the follow-through to really change things."

"I really hope so… Speaking of jobs, though; has anyone else been interested that you know of? Because my work forms say I can hire five Nonhumans or seven humans." Kai said, hoping to change the subject.

"No one's really spoken up yet…" Darren said, in a tone that made Kai suspicious.

"Why not? They know I'm paying decent wages, right?" Kai asked.

"They do…and many think it's a nice gesture…but they don't…never mind." the nonhuman finished, sounding uncomfortable.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but…they don't think you're serious about staying here." Darren said, giving her a please-don't-fire-me look.

"What would make them think that?" Kai asked, somewhat hurt.

"Well… All right, here it is; you're rich, Kai. You're a rich human…or at least, your father is." Darren said quickly.

"So?"

"So, if this shop doesn't work out for you, or if you get tired of it, you can just go back to your life as though none of this ever happened. You've got no real stake in this whatsoever; but for us–me and Byron, at least–it'd be devastating if you decided to leave. We've got no jobs without this place; I quit at the mines, and it'd be hard or impossible to go back. Byron's a teacher; and the MNU took that away from him for answering a child's question… We've got nowhere to go if we get kicked out of the Gebeuren; save the District proper. So you see, the Poleepkwa here aren't going to work for you unless they're sure you're serious about staying. For all they know, this could just be some human whim that you'll abandon tomorrow in favor of something else." the nonhuman concluded.

"Do they really think I'm that kind of person?" the girl asked, and Darren shrugged.

"I'll say it again; we haven't been treated well by humans. The well-meaning ones who sometimes crowd around the gate and make promises of change that never comes. They tell us that they'll stop MNU from burning our eggs and treating us like slaves and criminals; but they just go home without doing anything. We just want equality; not favoritism."

"And that's what I want for you; but what can I do? I can't make jobs for almost three million people… I can't force MNU to treat you right…I'm just going to run a freaking convenience store…" Kai said sadly.

"You're also providing Edgar and Angelo with an education by hiring Byron. You're making more food available to the residents of the District. You're treating us like people, Kai! And no; you may not be able to make the company act right, but eventually the residents of the Gebeuren may find life a little more bearable."

"I guess so… I suppose I really shouldn't put this place down on the third day… I'm going to show the people of the District that I'm here to stay!" Kai said, a little optimistically.

"Good!" Darren said.

"I'm going to show everyone that I'm not some flighty rich girl and stop feeling sorry for myself!" Kai resolved.

"Wonderful!" Darren exclaimed, and the three other Nonhumans turned to look at her with tilted heads.

Kai hopped up from the chair.

"I'm going to go put this case of tampons on the shelf!" she announced, picking up a flowery pink box.

"Good for you!" Darren almost yelled.

Kai went back to work, her spirit lifted.

"Uuuggghhh…." Darren and Byron both shivered.


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 15**

"Crap; I thought we'd never get done with that!" Kai said, tiredly flopping down into a chair. It was almost three o'clock, and they'd finally finished stocking the store. Everything was sitting neatly on the shelves, and everyone was tired from the business of putting it there.

"I agree… I'm just so glad we won't have to do that again." Byron concurred, sinking down opposite her.

"Don't say anything; we might find another box somewhere…" Darren warned, taking a drink of the water his employee had set out for everyone.

"We're tired…" Angelo said, and Edgar nodded in agreement.

"Okay, okay. First of all; big thanks to everyone for helping out. Today couldn't have been easy, and I know you're tired. Now, since we've been working so hard, let's just spend the rest of the day relaxing. Kids; you can go lie down if you want to." Kai said, and the two little ones scurried off for a snooze.

"So, what do we adults do?" Darren asked.

"Well, if I drank or served liquor, we could get plastered…" Kai said.

"No loss there; it wouldn't affect us anyway. Honestly, I could go for a big truck tire… Why don't you drink?" Byron asked, sounding interested.

"Bad things happen when I drink… Mostly to other people… Just like when I get bored…" Kai replied, and the others left it alone.

"Anyway, sorry I don't have a tire for you; should have thought to stock them." the human apologized, clearing her throat to break the awkward silence that had fallen over the room.

They talked for awhile, until the ringing of Kai's phone got their attention. Picking up, she was surprised to find that it was a woman she'd never met on the other end.

"Yes, is this Kai Validus?" the woman asked, in an authoritative tone.

"Yeah, who's this?" Kai asked, wondering how a stranger got her phone number.

"This is Jane Wallace, of MNU; you may call me Ms. Wallace. I'm calling to inform you that I'll be replacing Mr. Peters as the guard at the east entrance." the woman replied.

"What happened to– Oh, crap; did he die last night or something?" the other female asked, feeling guilty for not really caring.

"No, he transferred, and I'm here now; that's all you need to know. Please come out to the security booth to answer some questions about your whereabouts last night."

"Why? I was inside the District when that happened." Kai protested.

"Please don't argue with me, Ms. Validus. MNU takes very seriously the safety of those in and around the District, and you are one of our more prominent residents." the guard snapped.

"Prominent…? Whatever! I'll be out there in a minute… I'm leaving two of my Poleepkwa employees in charge, is that okay?"

"Fine."

Kai hung up the phone and went to the door, but not before writing down a number and giving it and her phone to Byron.

"If this happens to be a trap or something, call this number." she instructed.

"Right; who's number is it?" the older Poleepkwa asked.

"My dad's; he'll have a freaking army down here if there's trouble. If I don't come back in an hour, call him, okay?"

"All right; but I'm sure it won't come to that." Byron said.

"Let's hope not." she replied, and took the store's keys from her pocket.

"You know what to do when I'm gone; just don't burn the place down and we'll be fine." she said jokingly, tossing the keys to Darren.

Grumbling the whole way, Kai made her way to the gates and pushed the intercom button.

"It's Kai Validus." she said simply, and stood back for the gates.

Walking through the portal, she saw that the activities of the previous night were evident; there were spent shells and bullet holes everywhere, pitting the ground and even the steel fence that separated the Gebeuren from the "human world".

"Ms. Validus!"

Kai's attention was immediately drawn to the left, where a woman in the black, bulletproof MNU vest was standing inside a booth. Apparently, the booth belonging to Peters had been damaged, for a new, larger one was in its place, gleaming bright blue in the afternoon sun. Walking over to the newest fixture, Kai could feel that the place had air-conditioning, as opposed to the sluggish fan of before.

"Jane Wallace?" the younger woman asked, eying the other suspiciously.

The guard was about thirty-five years old, with dirty-blonde hair bound tightly into a bun on top of her head. She was well-toned, like Kai, but didn't have nearly the flat chest that the younger girl did. She was wearing what looked like a plain white collared shirt under the vest, and black pants. She had rather serious green eyes that made Kai aware that she wouldn't be nearly as hard to get around as her predecessor.

"Ms. Wallace, remember? Now, about those questions…" she said, picking up a clipboard.

"Hey, is even safe for me to be out here after last night?" Kai asked, looking around.

"Yes; many of the perpetrators have been apprehended."

"So they'll be pissed and trying to kill any MNU they find?"

"Let's just get this out of the way…"

"You're just calm because you've got a bulletproof vest on...is this bulletproof glass? The old booth didn't have bulletproof glass… God! No wonder Peters asked for a transfer…"

"Ms. Validus…" Ms. Wallace said, getting impatient.

"Oh, no; you're not filling that crap out for me!" Kai said, glaring at the guard.

"Excuse me?"

"I know how this kind of thing works; you ask me questions, I answer, and you write down whatever suits your company's needs… Anything to keep the nonhumans down, huh?"

"I'm not writing down anything, you paranoid little twit! This is the list of questions! I just need to find out if anyone inside the Gebeuren knows anything about what happened last night! They've already interviewed the Poleepkwa; now it's your turn!" Ms. Wallace snapped.

"Well, they could have asked– Wait; did you say Poleepkwa?" Kai asked, not expecting anyone from MNU to ever use that term.

"Yes; that's what our visitors prefer to be called, isn't it? Now, about this paper…" Wallace said.

"So, the company told you that I don't like the word "prawn"… Interesting; I can play your game." Kai said, her black eyes burning.

"What game? I'm trying to help the residents of this section!"

"Hm?"

"Don't you understand? This morning, every single Poleepkwa in the Gebeuren was made to come out into the streets at about seven o'clock and give a testimony of their whereabouts last night during all the shooting. Though every individual stated that they knew nothing about the event, the higher-ups are certain that some nonhumans have taken a couple of company's vehicles. Though there is no way in or out except via the gates, the Security Department is hell-bent on interrogating everyone! They won't believe the aliens, but they might believe you! If you just tell me where you were and what you were doing last night, things might get back to normal around here!" Wallace concluded in a huff.

"I'll give you credit; if this is some MNU game, it's a good one. Fine; I'll go along with this…to keep my friends out of the enforcers' way." Kai said, and prepared for the questions.

"Good! All right; did you here a commotion last night about ten o'clock?"

"Yes."

"Did it sound like gunfire?"

"Yes."

"Where were you when this was taking place?"

"I was in my room above my store, trying to go to sleep."

"But I was informed that you went out earlier that day? You took a cab into the city?" the blonde asked.

"Yeah; I went to pick up some of my belongings at the local courier's."

"Do you know what number the cab was? Or the name of the driver?"

"No." Kai lied, wanting to keep Bongani's name out of things.

"You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure; I'm also sure that I'm not going to get involve in this thing any more than I already have. You guys can deal with it if you want to, but leave me out of it." Kai said, ending the conversation. She had often heard whispered tales of what happened to people who talked to the cops about gangs; and none of them ever ended nicely.

"Fair enough, and it won't have come from you. But you're sure that no Poleepkwa were involved?"

"I'm absolutely sure that no Poleepkwa in the Gebeuren was involved in the events of last night; I'll swear it on a Bible if I have to." Kai asserted.

"Really?" Wallace asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why the hell not? Look, I've got to go, if I'm not back in about…fifteen minutes, my friends back at the shop will assume something bad happened to me and call my dad." Kai said and waited while Ms. Wallace opened the gate for her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 16**

"Okay guys; I'm back!" Kai called, poking her head into the store.

"Good; we were about to call the number you gave us." Byron said, handing the mobile back to its owner.

"We were debating whether or not to give you a few more minutes, but Byron thought that it would be best to stick to your idea." Darren added, making the older Poleepkwa shoot him a dirty look.

"Either way… If you don't mind me asking, Kai; what did the person who called you want?" Byron asked.

"It's cool… Actually, because of that joyride the gang members took last night, we've got a new security guard outside." the human said, putting the phone away and hopping up to sit on the counter.

"Did Mr. Peters die?" both nonhumans asked, sounding almost hopeful.

"Nah…he transferred. The new one's a woman named Jane Wallace. She just wanted to ask me some questions about last night, was all. I told her that I didn't know anything, and that I wasn't getting involved in that mess." Kai replied.

"Good; those gangs are brutal to their own members, and worse to people who cross them. What is the Wallace woman like? Is she worse than Peters?" Darren asked. Kai could understand his urgency to know about the newcomer; a prisoner needed to know about their guards if they wanted to survive.

"Actually, she seemed a lot more alien-friendly. You know, she actually used the word "Poleepkwa" in reference to nonhumans? It's so rare that I hear that from other humans, I was shocked; seriously!"

"Hm…interesting… Perhaps this person has some decency…" Byron said thoughtfully.

"A rarity among humans, to be sure." Darren concurred.

"We'll have to keep an eye on her; if for nothing else, than to have something to do." Kai mused.

"You're an odd little thing, aren't you?" Byron commented.

"Odd like a fox…" Kai said, smiling slyly; she was hoping for some amusement while she was in Africa…and it looked like she'd find it.

"Kai! Kai!" two small voices got all their attention, and they turned to see Angelo and Edgar scurrying out of the back room, where they hopped up onto a chair to be on more of an eye level with her.

"What's up, kids?" the human asked, looking down at the two tiny nonhumans.

'We're hungry!" Edger chirped.

"Yeah, hungry!" Angelo agreed.

"Already? It's only been…oh, almost two hours, huh? All right; what do you want to eat?" the human asked.

"Meat!" they both chirped at the same time.

"What about you two? Couple of steaks okay? I know MNU doesn't give you fresh cuts." Kai said, going and getting a couple of packages of beef from the freezer.

"Yes; but won't you go broke feeding all of us so well?" Darren asked, catching a package that the human threw to him.

"Screw it; I'll write it off as a business expense."

"Works for me." Byron said, mouth full of raw meat.

"Yeah! Screw it!" both kids repeated, making both of the older Poleepkwa choke.

"Wh-what did you…?" Kai laughed hysterically, gripping the counter to keep from falling on the floor.

"You've got to be careful about your language, Kai; they'll repeat anything." Darren said, coughing.

"I guess *laugh* I'll have to be careful from now on…at least while these little bugs are here…" the human said, affectionately rubbing the kids' heads.

"Their parents will have my antennae if they come home swearing like humans…" Byron muttered.

"Mine, too…" Darren said, touching his antennae a little nervously.

"Yeah, you're right…" Kai said, then turned to the children.

"Now look… You shouldn't repeat…well, anything that I say…okay?" she said to the two little aliens.

"Okay; but why?" they asked, the way all children of that age did.

"Well, it's just not proper Poleepkwa behavior, children." Byron answered.

"But _you_ said it, Kai!" Angelo replied, almost accusingly, to the human.

"I'm not a Poleepkwa; so proper Poleepkwa behavior doesn't really apply to me." the human said, stating the obvious.

"But…" Angelo began, apparently trying to use the childish logic that made more sense than most adult humans.

"Hey look; marshmallows!" Kai said quickly, grabbing a package of them and giving them to the kids.

This distracted them, for the moment, and they set about happily munching on the sweets.

"You guys want?" she asked, offering another bag, the two older aliens shook their heads. Kai put the sweets back on the shelf and went to pay for the newest batch of food.

"You're going to go broke…" Darren said quietly, observing the woman's activity.

"Hopefully the residents will realize I'm not a complete fu–I mean, jerk–and start shopping here soon. We should be open for business tomorrow, with any luck."

"And you've only been here what? Three days?" Byron joked.

"We've been on Earth too long; we're starting to pick up human habits." Darren muttered.

"Sarcasm isn't limited to humans, young one." Byron said quietly.

"What's sarcasm?" Edgar called, his speech muffled by a mouthful of marshmallow.

"All too common, child." Byron stated flatly, and the small nonhuman puzzled over what he meant while chewing on another marshmallow.

"I hate it when they say things like that…" Angelo muttered, pouting.

"You'll understand these things when you're older…" Edgar mimicked in an adult voice, and Angelo chirped in laughter.

"You _will_ understand things when you get older." Darren asserted.

"See?" Edgar said, rolling his large eyes.

"Believe me; being a grownup sucks. You know all those things they say you'll understand? Well, their not so great once you know them. There are some things in this world that you just can't unlearn once you know about them. Trust me; once you're an adult, you'll be wishing you were a kid again." Kai said sagely, remembering her own childhood.

"Yeah, but people don't tell you what to do… Not you, anyway; you're a human." Angelo pointed out.

"Oh, yes they do; but now it's not my dad's house rules about fire and psychological warfare…no, now it's federal laws about fire and psychological warfare. And you don't go to time-out; you go to jail overnight on a trumped-up charge because the local cops are incompetent bast–"

"Kai!" Byron said quickly, and the human snapped back to reality.

"Uh, never mind… Oh, look; it's almost time to go home…" she said quickly, glancing at a clock on the wall.

"Yay! My daddies will be home soon!" Edgar said happily.

"My daddy too!" Angelo said, stuffing another marshmallow into his mouth.

"Let's get you guys cleaned up, then… I hope your parents won't be too mad at me for giving you all these sweets…" Kai said, getting a paper towel and wetting it in the sink. She began to wash the powdered sugar and bits of fluff from the two little ones' faces, taking the–now empty–package to the trash when finished.

"They'll just be glad that you gave them food. It's so rare that they get to fill their stomachs. Their parents would gladly give them their shares as well; but they need their strength to keep up with their jobs." Byron said quietly, as the human passed him. He had begun to clean off the tables.

"Then why don't they just leave the Gebeuren? There are some other parts of the District that aren't so bad, aren't there?" she asked.

"I've heard that, too; but at least here they don't have to worry about the gangs and other criminals. You know, security around the District wasn't quite this tight a few months ago."

"Too bad they won't let you leave the place…"

"Where would we go? We're not allowed on busses, airlines, or ships. We're not welcome in the cities or towns, and MNU has about ninety percent of the planet's population thinking that we're bottom-feeding, violent insects. Even if the fences came down today and we were free to leave; we'd have to stay here. We'd be prisoners even if we were totally free here."

"Do you think it'll ever change?" Kai asked.

"Until your species learns to get along with itself, I doubt they'll find room for us." the older being replied, and went back to work.

Kai proceeded to take a long look around the store, quietly pondering Byron's words. She was free to come and go as she pleased; no one really bothered her if she wanted to go in or out of the District. She couldn't imagine anyone telling her that she had to go somewhere or couldn't just because she was human…so how could humans do it to other beings?

"The world's in a sad, sad state." her father had said once, observing news footage of a riot in some Middle Eastern country or other.

"The world's gone crazy." a younger Kai had said, as a mob burned a government building to the ground.

"No; not the world…just the people." Elric Validus said mournfully, before switching off the television, telling her that she was too young to see such things.

"You'll have plenty of opportunity to witness suffering in the future." he'd told her, when she'd protested that she wasn't a little girl anymore.

"I hope you're wrong, dad…" she thought. She began to straighten the shelves, when the sound of the bell over the door got her attention. The kids' parents were there to pick them up.


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**And please check out my story "Noble Pursuits" over on Fiction Press . Net My Username is the same as here (kuragari1024).**

**Chapter 17**

Thank you, please come again." Kai said, handing the large green Poleepkwa his change.

It had been a little over six weeks since Kai had settled into the Gebeuren and officially opened her store. Since then, she and her employees had formed a nice routine. They'd all gotten used to each other and were now quite comfortable working together. The Poleepkwa were no longer uneasy around Kai, and she was no longer uneasy around them.

The shop had taken off rather quickly, thanks to the effort of the Poleepkwa that Kai knew. They'd spread the word around the Gebeuren and at their respective jobs that her place had good food at affordable prices. Ever since the first nonhuman had come into the store and tentatively asked about the price of goat meat, there was a veritable flood of aliens looking to her establishment for their next meal.

Kai was surprised at the number of Poleepkwa from outside the Gebeuren, but Byron had explained that, as long as they were cleared at the gates, they were allowed inside the sector for an hour or so to visit friends and family; provided they get a signed pass, of course.

By far, the biggest seller at the shop was meat, followed closely by cat food. Because of this, the human had expanded her inventory to ten kinds of meat and eight brands of cat food. It was interesting to note that, just like a human who preferred a certain brand of beer, nonhumans had their own preferences for cat food.

The large alien took his change and left, nodding his appreciation. Kai took the opportunity to sit down in a chair she'd moved behind the counter. Though business wasn't what one might call "booming", there was enough to make the woman's feet hurt from standing so much. She enjoyed it, however; the Poleepkwa were more polite and well-behaved than most humans, and they didn't come into the shop just to browse and leave without buying anything. The MNU's presence made shoplifting a suicide mission, so there was no problem with theft, which was good, as someone getting killed in or around her store would probably be bad for business.

Edgar and Angelo, now finished with their studies for the day, scurried off to the break room to play with a sturdy rubber ball that Kai had gotten for them. There was now a sturdy couch and chairs in there, and the big crate that Kai had gotten from the courier's when she'd picked up her things (the kids liked to play in it, so she hadn't gotten rid of it) a couple of rugs, and some posters on the wall, but nothing that they could break.

"How are they doing?" she asked Byron, who was shuffling papers.

Since business was usually slow the last hour or so, an unofficial break time had been established for everyone. Byron took the time to teach the children, Darren kept himself busy by cleaning or reading, and Kai watched some anime. This had started when the human made up her mind that she couldn't pay Byron for teaching but not pay Darren. Since then, she'd made up a rule that Darren had to get at least one thing done; even if it was just changing a toilet paper roll or taking out the trash, and Byron had to teach the kids one new thing, even how to do a cat's cradle or roll up socks. This arrangement seemed to suit everyone just fine. During the day, the children did odd little tasks around the store; keeping the shelves straight, dusting, and general things of that sort.

"Very well. Without MNU breathing down my neck, I can give them a proper Poleepkwa education. They're learning the history of our homeworld and culture." he replied.

"That's great; it'll help them when you go home, right?"

"A great deal. There are sure to be thousands of children and young adults who don't know about their own culture; it'll take years before the older ones can get proper jobs. The younger ones will have to start remedial classes… It'll be hard, but we're a resilient species." Byron said.

"I'm done with the trash." Darren announced, coming in from outside.

"Great; that's your accomplishment for this hour… Let's all take a break." the human said, waving to him.

Darren washed his hands and sat down at a table, picking up a Yaoi manga Kai had lent him. He'd become quite embroiled in that particular series, and waited eagerly for Kai to get the next volume by mail.

"Ah, there's nothing more satisfying than educating the young!" Byron groaned happily, stretching leisurely.

They settled into their daily routine, and soon the place was quiet, except for the occasional squeak of the kids' play in the next room. The days seemed to go fairly fast now, and it hardly seemed any time at all since Kai had been there.

The human had just finished watching the latest episode of a Korean drama she had gotten into lately, when a crackling noise got her attention.

"Intercom." she muttered, and pushed a book out from in front of it.

Upon the insistence of an MNU representative who'd come to visit earlier that month, Kai had agreed to install a wireless intercom in her shop. This was connected mainly to the east gate, where Jane Wallace could inform her of anything going on. There was one downstairs, and one in Kai's living room above. This way, she could call ahead when she wanted to go outside, and Wallace could check up n the Poleepkwa in the shop if Kai went into town.

"Ms. Validus, I'm just letting you know that there will be a new nonhuman arriving at the west entrance in an hour." Wallace informed her.

The west entrance was a large gate that separated the Gebeuren from the District proper. There was actually no guard on the Gebeuren side, but a heavily-armed guard tower above. There was an intercom there as well, and Kai had a button for it on her device, but never thought she'd have cause to use it.

"Oh? What's his name?" the other human asked, noticing the interest that the two aliens were showing in the conversation.

"Let's see… Alexander Grey. Apparently, he's getting a house through inheritance." the guard read off.

"Inheritance?" Kai asked, a little confused.

"That's all it says; you'll have to talk to Mr. Grey yourself."

"Okay. Should I meet him at the gate or something?"

"If you want; you could tell him the rules… Hm? And apparently find him a place to stay." Wallace muttered.

"I thought the houses were assigned?" Kai asked.

"They are, but the forms are going to take another week or so to go through. Until then, he'll have to stay with another nonhuman. I've already checked and made sure it'll be okay with the enforcers in the area."

"Okay, I'll take one of my employees with me."

"I'll check up on the one staying behind then. Wallace said.

"All right… It'll be interesting." Kai agreed, and, after a few minutes of discussing what she would do upon meeting the stranger, the two women terminated the communication.

"A new resident of the Gebeuren… That hasn't happened in almost eight years; not counting Edgar and Angelo's births." Byron recalled.

"Speaking of, there's something I wanted to ask you." Kai said, coming over to sit opposite the older Poleepkwa.

"In the Gebeuren, how do you–nonhumans, I mean–how do you…or where do you…you know…give birth?"

"Do you mean physically? Because that's a fairly simple process involving–" Byron began, reminding her of her biology professor in college.

"No! I mean, where do you _keep_ your eggs once you _lay_ them? I know they're hooked up to dead animals for the baby's nutrition; but surely you don't keep them in your homes?" Kai inquired.

"Oh! MNU has set aside buildings for us to use as hatcheries; or rather, _building_. There's really not a lot of demand for such a place, seeing as licenses are so hard and time-consuming to acquire. Also, if you are to have a child, you have to purchase the animal carcass directly through MNU. There's no way to hide an unlicensed child here; they've thought of every angle."

"But… I mean… When Erin's egg was… Wasn't that a legal…?"

"It was; it took weeks for the papers to get through all the red tape, but eventually a license was granted. The hatchery was a legal one, and MNU employees worked there. When the Pages' first egg was destroyed, it was completely within their rights, as far as they were concerned. It's printed on the licenses that MNU had the legal right to "abort" our eggs if they see fit to do so. We have to either sign the papers and submit to the possibility of termination or produce an unlicensed egg and assure it."

"That's horrible…" Kai said quietly, and Byron nodded. The human noticed that Darren had been quiet all this time.

"Are you all right?" she asked, looking at the Poleepkwa, who was staring off into space, apparently deep in thought.

"I'm fine." he replied, sounding morose.

"Okay then…"

"So, where will this new Poleepkwa be staying?" Byron asked, as a change of subject. He seemed to know what was going on more than Kai did.

"I suppose we'll have to see when we meet him." Darren said, coming out of his funk a little.

"Well, should we get going? The west gate's about twenty minutes away." Kai suggested.

"Take Darren; he's younger. Besides, I have to grade these papers before tomorrow." Byron said dismissively.

"All right; let's go." Darren muttered, still seeming distracted.

"Take care of the place, Byron." Kai said, handing him the keys.

The two headed out the door and began walking toward the large gate that separated the District proper and Gebeuren. It was a hot day, like any other, and the sound of the dusty wind on the cheaply-shingled roofs of the houses was grating to the ears.

They approached the gate and stood under a makeshift awning made from a piece of sheet metal welded to the steel fence. The cover provided precious little protection, but they were grateful for it.

Thinking back to the conversation about the eggs, Kai wondered why Darren had gotten so weird.

"Hey, Darren… What was with you back there?" she asked, trying to choose her words carefully.

"What do you mean?" the Poleepkwa asked, pulling the leaves off a piece of dried-up grass.

"When we were talking about the eggs… You kind of spaced out."

"I…have my reasons." he replied.

"What are they? I mean, you didn't have–"

"Kai, please…just leave it alone." Darren said quietly, and the human became silent.

The minutes passed slowly, with neither one of them speaking, save a quiet remark about the wind or heat. Soon, a strong wind kicked up a small dust storm, and Kai and Darren had to cover their eyes. Eventually, the rumble of the large gate made them stand out in the open and squint at the activity.

The gate slowly opened, and in a moment a figure could be seen through the swirling brown dust. It moved through the storm slowly, making its way toward them. As the Poleepkwa got closer, another figure could be seen walking alongside it, this one a human. The figures came closer and closer, until they stood almost toe-to-toe with the Gebeuren residents.

The human was just an MNU enforcer holding a gun and clipboard, but it was the nonhuman standing quietly at his side that drew the attention.

"Whoa…" Kai said, when she saw the Poleepkwa, and Darren's eyes went wide.


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer – Don't own District 9.**

**Chapter 18**

The nonhuman stood quietly beside the human, clutching a black plastic trash bag that undoubtedly contained his possessions.

"Grey" was a fitting last name for him; he was an exceptionally beautiful example of the color; like one of those expensive cultured pearls, but without the sheen of one. Unlike most Poleepkwa, who had some speckles on them here and there, this creature didn't have a single mark or blemish on his entire body. He was wearing what appeared to be a series of multi-colored bed sheets, which were patched here and there and ragged at the edges. His eyes, which were downcast at the moment, were a darker shade of grey than his body, and had a shy, innocent look to them.

Perhaps the strangest feature about this alien were his antennae, which were a light shade of pink near the bases of them; this was more apparent on the longer set, but was fairly visible on the inner pair as well. In all other aspects, he was physically like the rest of his species.

"Whoa…" Kai said again; she'd never seen anything like this tall, pale creature. Darren stood quietly, staring at the other Poleepkwa, until the clipboard-holding human spoke up. He was thin, thirty-something security guard with a white shirt and blue pants, and an old-looking necktie.

"Are you Kai Validus?" he asked.

"Y-yeah…"

"Jane Wallace at the east gate said that you'd sign for this prawn…" he said.

"Sign?" Kai asked.

"Yeah. Usually, one of the enforcers around here would do it, but most of 'em have been called out on some kind of training mission. I need a human signature if this one's going to go to Gebeuren." the guard concluded.

"I'll sign for him, then." the younger human said, and the older one handed her the clipboard.

The documents seemed to be fairly standard. It was basically a statement saying that the Poleepkwa had passed though the gate legally, and that he was the responsibility of the Gebeuren from then on. Kai read over it carefully before signing.

"Now you, prawn." the guard said, taking the clipboard and thrusting it at Alexander Grey. He silently accepted it and gave his signature, before handing it back to the guard, who made a face upon touching it.

"He's all yours now; feel free to call the enforcers if he gives you any trouble." the guard said, before taking his clipboard back across the threshold to the District proper. In a moment, the giant gates rumbled shut and the two Poleepkwa and one human were left alone in the still-swirling dust.

"So… Are you hungry?" Kai asked, for lack of anything better to say.

"I…" the Poleepkwa said quietly, but then went silent again.

"Well, just come with me and we'll find you something to eat and a place to stay." she said gently.

"I… I thought that my parent…" Alexander Grey began, but then fell silent again.

"What? You can tell me; it's okay." the human urged.

"I thought that my parent had a home arranged…" he said.

"Apparently so; but they're still lining you up a place to stay. I'll see if anyone I know can put you up until then." she replied, and began the walk home, noticing that Darren was still staring at Alexander, and hadn't spoken a word yet.

Kai moved to walk beside Darren, and Alexander took up the rear, keeping his head down and his trash bag clutched against his pale chest.

"What's with you, Darren?" she whispered.

"I'll explain later." Darren said, then went as quiet as the other nonhuman. Kai decided that it must be some weird Poleepkwa thing. Sighing, she kicked at the dirt as they walked along, watching the tiny dust clouds rise and fall around her old tennis shoes.

At last, the dust storm settled down and the sky cleared. The shop soon came into view, and Alexander stopped dead in his tracks, looking worriedly at the establishment.

"What's wrong?" Kai asked, tilting her head in confusion.

"That's…that's a human establishment! I don't think I'll be allowed in…" he replied.

"Of course you'll be allowed in; I own the place! Darren here works for me, and another Poleepkwa named Bryon does, too. If you're qualified, you can have a job there as well; MNU charges all sorts of insane fees, so you'll need a job as soon as possible. You can apply today, if you want." the human explained.

"I… I have no talents… What would I do?" Alexander asked.

"I don't know; we found jobs for Darren and Byron, so I'm sure we can find something for you. Come on; it's too hot out here." Kai said, wiping sweat from her forehead.

They continued on, and walked through the front door of the shop, the bell tinkling as they did so. Byron seemed to be busy arranging something on a nearby shelf, and had his back to them.

"Hey Byron; we're back…and we've brought a guest..." Kai said, shivering at the wonderful sensation of the cold air enveloping her.

"Ah, yes… Welcome to the– Oh!" Byron began, turning around. He had a jar of pickles one hand, which dropped to the floor and shattered upon seeing the newcomer. Alexander glanced shyly away, clutching his trash bag tighter against his chest. His antennae lay flat against his head, showing that he was nervous.

"That's it! Both of you, come with me! Alexander, pick out anything you want to eat, and take a seat." the human said, pulling both Poleepkwa with her into the break room, leaving the other nonhuman standing in the middle of the store with a confused look on his face.

"What's wrong with the both of you? Why are you acting that way around Alexander?" she interrogated.

"It's… He's just…" Darren said, looking at the floor.

"He's not, like, some sort of cursed being, is he?" Kai asked, unfamiliar with this behavior.

"No! Absolutely not!" Byron said quickly, looking offended by the implication.

"So…?"

"That Poleepkwa…Alexander Grey… I don't know how else to put this, but… He's unique." Darren muttered.

"Unique? Why?"

"Well, he's a very rare sort of Poleepkwa. That pigmentation is amazingly distinctive." Byron explained, glancing at the store, where Alexander was looking around in confusion.

"This isn't some sort of supremacy thing, is it? 'Cause I don't go for that crap!" Kai said sternly.

"No! It's just that Poleepkwa like him are extraordinarily uncommon. Their unique appearance is considered a supernatural event; to remind us that a mystical force exists. They are much sought after to appear at certain rituals and ceremonies. They are called upon to bless the sites for new cities, hold vigils on holy days, and the like. Other than that, they live just like everyone else; there's no special treatment or anything." Byron explained.

"So he's like a religious novelty; only needed when there's an event, but left to himself otherwise…" Kai thought out loud.

"If you feel you _must_ put it that way." Darren muttered, sounding slightly offended.

"Well, I don't really get it; but I'll bet he's getting lonely out there." the human said, noticing that grey Poleepkwa still hadn't moved since he'd gotten there. He did appear to be getting impatient, as his antennae were waving around in a slightly agitated manner. He sighed quietly to himself and fidgeted a little; likely out of boredom.

"Hey, you two aren't going to like, bow down and pay homage to him or anything? I mean, you're going to act normal again, right?" Kai asked quietly, as they headed out into the store.

"Yes, yes; we were just surprised, was all. Let's not be bad hosts to our guest." Darren said, straightening up.

The three of them went into the other room and stood before the newcomer. He glanced shyly around at the three strangers, and then cast his eyes to the floor.

"Sorry about that…it was rude of us to stay away so long. Please, make yourself comfortable." Byron said, gesturing toward a table.

"Oh, well… Thank you…" Alexander said, slowly making his way to one of the tables and setting his trash bag on the floor near him.

"Now, the first thing that we need to do is to find you a place to stay until proper living arrangements can be made. After that, you can apply for a job here. It'll be easier than in the mines, and it pays better, too. We can find something for you to do, I'm sure." Kai said cheerfully.

"Yes, Kai treats us very well; and we get human wages." Darren said.

"Your life here won't be incredibly comfortable; but it'll be made a great deal better with the money you earn here." Byron added.

The grey Poleepkwa seemed about to speak, when the two children, who were apparently off in one corner of the room playing, came over to see what had been going on in the last few minutes.

"Hey, what's going on? Who are you?" Angelo asked.

"Ooh! He's pretty!" Edgar said, looking curiously up at Alexander, who peered back at them.

"Yeah! He's like this seashell I found this one time; it was the same color. I'll show it to you tomorrow." Angelo said, talking to Edgar.

"Okay, that'll be fun. I'm bored now; Kai, what can we do?" Edgar replied, looking up at Kai.

"Uhm… Let's see… How about… Oh! Here's some colored pencils and paper; why don't you two color for awhile?" she suggested, handing the kids said items.

"Yay!" they said together.

"Okay then; but promise me that you won't draw on anything but this paper this time. You know how long it took us to get the marks off the walls last week."

"We promise!" they agreed, and scurried off to the back room.

"Sorry about that… So, what do you say about working here?" Kai laughed, coming back over to Alexander.

"I'd love to." he replied softly.

"Okay then; now all we have to do is find you a house!" the human said determinedly.


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer – I don't own District 9.**

**Chapter 19**

"Forty occupied homes in this place and no one can take him in for a few days!" Kai sighed, sinking down into the couch of the break room.

She and Darren had been going door-to-door in the Gebeuren for almost three hours, trying to see if anyone could take Alexander in until his house was ready for him. Most of the Poleepkwa were at work, but the few that were at home shook their heads, apologized, and shut their doors. Alexander had filled out an application, with Byron's help, and looked very qualified to work at the shop. Kai was looking forward to working with the shy creature, as he seemed to have a very quiet and gentle personality.

"It's not out of selfishness; if they allow Alexander to stay, there will be problems from MNU. They will ask for forms and extra fees and more house inspections…" Darren said, sitting in a chair.

"Have you found a place for me?" Alexander asked quietly, coming into the room. He was carrying a damp rag in one hand, evidence that he'd been cleaning something or other in the store. From what Byron had said, he seemed to be more at ease when performing household tasks, so the older alien had put him in charge of sanitation.

"I'm sorry, but no; we'll keep looking, though… Soon the other Poleepkwa will be coming home, so we can ask more of them." Kai said, trying to sound hopeful.

"Thank you for looking." the youngest of the three Poleepkwa said, and went off to clean something else.

"He seems sweet. Kind of sheltered, though." Kai observed.

"I noticed it as well…" Darren agreed, watching as Alexander got a bucket of hot water and began to clean the store's front windows, chirping contentedly as he did so.

"All right; I've finished with the bookkeeping for today, Kai. By the way, the bills came for the rent and utilities." Byron said, popping into the room. He saw the thoughtful and slightly despondent way the two others were looking and cocked his head.

"You couldn't find any place for him, could you?" he asked solemnly.

"No… Where's he going to stay? We can't just let him live on the street…" Kai said.

"Actually, MNU doesn't allow anyone to live here without a house; so he'll be taken back to the District before then…" Darren pointed out.

"Well, thank you for the optimism… Hey, could he stay with you?" she asked the younger of the two Poleepkwa.

"Yes; your house is big enough for two people, Darren." Byron pointed out.

"I don't know… I haven't had anyone live with me before or since my partner…" Darren said, sounding a little uncomfortable.

"But he's got nowhere else to go; and I've no room at my home." Byron replied.

"I'd love to let him stay, but I don't think I'd even be allowed." Kai added.

"I… I'll do it…" Darren said, defeated.

"Thank you." the other two said together, and Kai called Alexander into the room.

"Alexander, Darren said you can stay with him until you get a place." Kai said.

"That would be wonderful; thank you, Darren." Alexander said politely.

"I'll just call Wallace up at the front gate and tell her…" the human said, and proceeded to do so.

"She says it's cool; your house should be ready in about a week." she said, hanging up the phone.

"That's good to hear." Alexander said.

"You can come home with me when work's done…" Darren said.

"I won't be any trouble; I promise!" the grey Poleepkwa assured.

"I'm not worried about that…you don't seem like the type to make trouble." the older alien replied, and Alexander went off again, this time with a broom and dustpan.

"Well, that's settled… What now?" Kai asked.

"The bills need attention…" Byron reminded gently.

"Ah, crap… Fine…" the human said, and trudged off into the other room.

*******

"So, you'll be taking the young one in?" Byron asked, turning to Darren once Kai had left.

"I suppose… He seems nice enough."

"How old do you think he is? He can't be twenty yet…"

"You're interested in him?" the younger Poleepkwa asked.

"I… Maybe. Surely he's not being courted?"

"How would I know?" Darren asked.

"You've known him longer than I have…"

"I've known him an _hour_ longer than you have; just talk to him!"

"I can't; you know a third party has to do such things…" Byron replied, sounding slightly shocked.

"Then Kai could; I'm sure she'd be willing."

"Which one of us will bring it up? I'd rather not be too forward about the whole situation…"

"You want…me…to ask her to ask Alexander if he's being courted by another Poleepkwa… Never an awkward moment around here." Darren muttered flatly.

"Will you, though?" Byron asked, sounding anxious.

"Fine… But you're going to owe me… One day, I will call you on this, and you will not hesitate to repay the debt. There will be no questions, no objections, no hesitations; you'll just do what I ask, no matter how strange, silly, or trivial it is. Are we agreed?" Darren said, putting on a serious face.

"Very well." Byron agreed.

Their heads turned as their employer came into the room, fuming.

*******

"Son of a… I can't believe MNU is charging me for their patrols! Five hundred Rand for "securing the peace"! They actually put that down! The rest of the stuff is okay, though…" Kai ranted coming into the room.

"Kai, I have something to ask you…" Darren said, rising from the sofa. Byron excused himself from the room, brushing past the human as he did so.

"What's up?"

"Well… Byron wants me… He wants me to ask you to ask Alexander if he's…being courted."

"Courted?" Kai asked, unsure of exactly what was going on.

"How would a human say it? Byron wants to know if Alexander has a…significant other." Darren explained.

"What? Why can't he ask Alexander directly?"

"It is common for Poleepkwa to go through a third party when finding a perspective partner. Usually it's through a mutual acquaintance or sibling." the nonhuman explained.

"Weirdness… All right; what all does Byron want to know about Alexander?" Kai asked.

"Just the basics; his age, if he's being courted…things like that. Byron will take it from there. All you really need to do is to talk to him and relay the information back to Byron."

"Okay… But if Alexander asks, can I tell him what he's being interrogated for?"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt…it might make things easier, in fact." Darren replied.

"All right then; I'm going to go talk to Alexander…" Kai muttered, and went off to find the young Poleepkwa.

*******

"So?" Byron asked, as Darren came into the store, with Kai going off in the direction Alexander had gone.

"She'll do it; but if he asks, she's going to tell him you're interested." Darren said.

"Good… I wouldn't want any awkward situations to arise from this."

"Keep your fingers crossed, to use a human expression." the younger alien said, and Byron nodded.

*******

"Hey, Alexander…" Kai said, approaching the pale nonhuman, who was dusting the shelves with a dry rag.

"Oh, hello…" he said quietly.

"So, since we're going to be working together, I think we should get to know each other better." the human said.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, like… Okay, how old are you?" she asked.

"I will be twenty next month." Alexander replied.

"Really? I'm twenty… What do you like to do for fun?"

"I enjoy housework…and cooking…" he said.

"See? I like to read and watch anime… Uhm… Are you…seeing anyone?" best to get it out of the way…

The look that came over Alexander's face the next second was absolutely priceless. His antennae stood on end, his eyes grew wide, his mouthparts became rather stiff as he scrunched up his face, and he dropped the rag and can of lemon-scented cleaner he was holding. Kai wondered had she offended him, or had he suffered some sort of internal spasm from the shock of the question.

"I… I… What?" he asked, apparently trying to process the question while picking up the dropped items off the floor.

"Are you…what was it… Are you…being courted?" Kai asked again, using the term Darren had.

"N-no... Who is asking for me?" he asked, craning his neck and looking at the two other Poleepkwa in the room and clutching the rag nervously to his chest.

"Byron; the older one." she replied, inclining her head toward said nonhuman.

"Well… He _is_ rather handsome; and he seems quite smart. Are you sure he's interested in _me_?" the alien's antennae seemed to turn a darker shade of pink, as though he was blushing.

"Seems like it. Apparently Poleepkwa need a third party to hook up with one another…and I seem to be it."

"I suppose... Are you sure you don't mind it?" he asked.

"No; I think it'll be cute. So, I can tell Byron you're interested in him?"

"Yes. I'll accept him, if he does intend to court me. He'll have to wait until I'm twenty, though."

"Why is that?" the human asked, curious.

"We Poleepkwa aren't really…well, sexually mature…until the general age of twenty or so; it's because we live much longer than humans do. At that age, we can begin looking for suitable life partners and think about families." Alexander explained.

"Ah… Well, I'll go tell Byron now; I think he'll be happy." Kai said, and excused herself, while the nonhuman went back to his dusting.

*******

"Here she comes!" Darren clicked to Byron, whose smaller arms were drawn up tight with anxiety.

"Please, let him be available!" the older alien was whispering, his antennae lying back against his head.

"It's cool." the human said, arriving in front of the nonhumans.

"Excuse me?" both of them questioned.

"He thinks you're cute, and he say's he'll accept you. Oh, and he'll be twenty next month. Hey I have a question; if you started dating him now, would you be a pedophile or something?"

"What? No! It's just taboo for us to begin courtship before then. It's a bit like the legal age of consent with you humans; it's not appropriate to go outside the preset limits, you see?" Byron concluded.

"I guess so. Well anyway; I think he's nice, and he seems like he thinks the same about you." Kai said, smiling at the older being.

"I hope so; I must admit…I've been a bit lonely."

"I know the feeling quite well." Darren said quietly, and Byron gave him a meaningful look.

"So… Today was a good day. Oh, it's almost quitting time. I'd better get the kids ready for their parents. Hey, where are they? I thought they went to the break room, but we were just in there…"

"They're in the corner; I set them to work on some addition problems a while ago." Byron said.

"Okay… I was worried for a minute there…" Kai said, then called to the two little ones.

"Come on, guys; clean up for your parents!"

Edgar and Angelo scurried to pick up the various crayons, colored pencils, markers, and pieces of paper that they'd been playing with and put them in a plastic box for later, all the while chattering about what they'd been drawing.


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer – I don't own District 9.**

**Chapter 20**

_Three weeks later…_

"Now who in the hell sent me thirty voicemails?"

Kai had just activated her new cell phone. The other one had died after Alexander had accidentally knocked it into the sink while doing dishes; that had been a week previous. Since then, the grey Poleepkwa had apologized profusely every day for the incident; mainly as Kai's phone was a very expensive birthday gift from her father. It had taken three days to get the phone ordered, and another four to get it flown to Africa; and shipping costs were through the roof. Now she saw that the same number accounted for thirty out of forty-five voicemails.

"Kai…" Byron muttered, inclining his head to the two younger aliens, who were working on identifying countries on a large map for their geography class.

"Sorry… Just wondering who sent me all these and why… Eight of them are my dad, five are from my lawyer, one's from my accountant, and one's the confirmation for my phone…and the other thirty are from this number I don't know…" the human said, trying to think if the number was familiar.

Over the past three weeks, things at the shop had settled down again. Everyone had gotten used to everyone else, and a nice routine had become the norm. Alexander's house had become available a few days after he went to stay with Darren, and he'd since moved into his new home. He and Byron walked to work every morning, and went home together every night.

The older Poleepkwa had since "used" Kai to get a bit more information about the younger one. It turned out that Alexander had lost his parent to an accident at his job in the mines about a month before they were scheduled to move to the Gebeuren. He was still grieving, albeit privately, and was understandably sensitive about the issue. He also loved housework and cooking, and hoped for a family one day. Alexander had also "used" his employer to find out that Byron was a lover of classic literature, also wanted a family, and had a secret fondness for crunchy peanut butter and raspberry yogurt.

"Maybe you've got a stalker!" Angelo called, looking over his shoulder.

"Ooh, scary!" Edgar chirped.

"I don't have a stalker… Let me see what Lily wants…" Kai said, getting out her laptop and setting up a conference with her lawyer. In a moment, the woman came onscreen, wearing a navy blue suit and with her hair pulled back into a bun.

"Kai! I'm so glad you called! I've been trying to get in touch with you for a week; there's something very important I need to talk to you about…" she was saying, but a thin secretary in a green dress came into view, holding a thick-looking stack of papers.

"Yamamoto-san! The defendant in that rape case from last month is asking for a mistrial!" she said, in rapid Japanese.

"What! I thought we had that bastard put away! Get the judge on the phone now!" the other woman snapped, and the secretary hurried away.

"Kai, I'm sorry, but this'll have to wait!" she said, and terminated the communication.

"Well, so much for that…" Kai muttered, turning the computer off.

"Hm, it seems as though the mysterious messages are connected to your legal representative…interesting…" Darren said, putting a fresh trash bag in the large communal can near the door.

"Yeah…but what could be so important? If it was MNU trying to call me, they'd have sent someone or something… Hm…looking at it now, I think I might have seen this number before…but where? Crap, this going to drive me crazy all day!" Kai huffed.

"That's because it's a stalker!" Angelo insisted, and Edgar giggled.

"It is not a stalker! How do you even know what a stalker is? You're only seven!"

"I'll be eight in three weeks!" the tiny alien replied, puffing up to make himself look bigger.

"And I'll be seven in two months!" Edgar added.

"Then we'll have to have a party for each of you." Kai said, going over and patting each of their heads in turn.

"Yay!" they said together, before going back to their work. Kai turned back to the older aliens.

"I just wish I could figure out who keeps trying to call me… I don't know…if they've been so desperate, they'll probably call again soon." she said, then went to count the day's earnings from the register. The reputation of the shop had been steadily growing, and some human customers had even started to appear from time to time. Kai hoped that the place didn't become some sort of tourist trap that the Poleepkwa were afraid to come anywhere near.

"Probably. Now, I've done the bookkeeping for this week, and it seems as though we're doing better than expected. We've had no problems with shoplifting or robberies, and we've only come up short three times this month. I'd say that we're doing much better than most of the other establishments in the District. The bills have been paid for this month, and we've ordered replacement stock, taken inventory, cleaned out the freezers, made out the monthly report of any suspicious activity, mopped the stock room, vacuumed the break room, cleaned the welcome rug, cleaned most of the bird feces off the patio furniture on the roof and the roof itself, washed the dishes, put the television in the break room, cleaned the windows, dusted the shelves…" Byron read off from a clipboard.

"Man, we do too much around here…" Kai muttered.

"And we've got just as much to do tomorrow…" Darren said, with just the right amount of sarcastic cheer.

"Woo!" the human said, pouting.

"Come on, Kai; you're not the type to shirk off hard work. We'll get through tomorrow's workload like we got through today's and yesterday's. The only thing left to do now is to clean out the refrigerator's icemaker; it's been smelling a little too much like mildew lately." Byron said, looking at the to-do list.

"All right…" the human said, and went to get a bucket of hot water and bleach.

_One hour later…_

"I really hate doing that…but at least that thing doesn't smell like feet anymore." Kai said, wiping her brow with her rubber-gloved hand.

"And there's the added bonus of not dying from drinking water contaminated by mould spores." Byron added, marking off the chore.

"Something that seems to become more and more meaningless with each passing day…" Darren muttered under his breath.

"What?" Alexander asked, coming into the room. He'd been in the break room for the past couple of hours, sorting through several piles of assorted, individually-wrapped chocolate candies that had mistakenly been delivered in the same box and accidentally spilled out onto the floor.

"Wow, you're pretty dark when you want to be, Darren." Kai said.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not in the best of moods at the moment." he replied, then went out of the room, murmuring something about doing some chore or other.

"Hey, Byron; what's up with Darren? He's been a little moody lately." the human said, taking the Poleepkwa aside.

"Kai… I really don't think that I should be the one to tell you this." he said, sounding uncomfortable.

"Why not? What's going on?"

"I really don't think it's my place, Kai; it's a very private thing for Darren."

"I'm not going to go around telling people, if that's what you're thinking." she assured, and Byron seemed to give in.

"Very well; but you must swear to me that you won't tell Darren where you heard this information. If he asks, you'll say you got it somewhere else. We Poleepkwa generally try to stay out of such matters. Is it a deal?"

"Yeah…of course." Kai said, wondering what was going on with Darren. He'd been like that for the past few days, and it didn't seem to be getting any better.

"All right then; come along." with this, he led her to the break room and shut the door behind. They stepped over the numerous small mountains of chocolates and Byron began his explanation.

"Darren has been acting the way he has because of… Well, because his anniversary is approaching…the anniversary of his partner's death."


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Okay, I'm re-posting this because I didn't get a SINGLE review on it so far! Remember; I'm not going to put out another chapter until at least two people review this one!**

**Chapter 21**

"His partner? Yeah, he told me when we met that he had a partner, but acted sad when I asked about him." Kai said thoughtfully.

"Yes; he and his partner were very close. When he died, Darren was absolutely devastated." Byron elaborated.

"How long were they together?"

"Ten years. They met when Darren was sixteen, began courting when he was twenty, and affirmed their bond the next year."

"Ten years? That's actually longer than my mom and dad had together… How…how did Darren's…how did he…?" Kai asked.

"He died of injuries from his job in the iron mines, like a good many Poleepkwa around here have. After that, Darren had to get a job in those same mines to support himself and stay here."

"How awful… What was his partner's name?"

"It was Tristan. Tristan de Graffe." Darren's voice made them jump.

The Poleepkwa was in the doorway, holding a trash bag, having come in to collect the trash in the break room. Byron's antennae lay flat against his head, and he coughed, before hurriedly excusing himself from the room, brushing past Darren as he did so.

"Darren…" Kai said quietly, not knowing the words to continue. He didn't look angry; but instead, a sadness hung over him.

"Don't …say anything. I'm not angry with you, if that's what you're thinking. I suppose I really can't be; I realize that I've been in somewhat of a foul temper lately, and I've given no explanation as to why." he said, putting the bag down and gently leading her to sit on the couch with him.

"Are you angry with Byron?" she asked.

"No; but I do wish he'd asked me before telling you this."

"He told me that your partner died around this time…"

"That…is true. Tristan was taken from me on the twentieth of August. It will be ten years ago next week that I lost my partner. It is…very hard." he admitted.

"I'm sorry to have pried into your personal life. You just seemed so out of it lately…"

"I suppose I was…and I will be, until the anniversary passes…but then I'll get back to normal."

"You must have loved him a lot." the human said gently, and watched as Darren's antennae drooped a bit.

"I did…and I do. Do…do you want to see a picture of us?" he asked, sounding unsure.

"Yeah… I'd love to." Kai said, honored that he'd offer something so personal.

Darren reached into a pocket and pulled out an old Polaroid picture and handed it to Kai, who held it carefully, as it appeared to be very old.

The photo was two Poleepkwa, one leaning lovingly against the other, who was looking down at him and smiling, and had an arm around his slender waist. The one being held was a younger-looking Darren, and the other-who was obviously older-one must have been Tristan. Though the picture was old and a bit faded, Kai could clearly see that the other Poleepkwa was a darker shade than Darren, with black specks on his carapace. He was almost six inches taller, and built broader. He had darker brown eyes, and had darker brown antennae. He was wearing the remnants of a brown pair of pants and a black denim vest, which was patched in places. The two looked genuinely in love with one another, and it made Kai a little sad for her friend.

"He's handsome. You two look happy." she said, handing the picture carefully back to the nonhuman.

"We were… You know, during our entire time together, we only had a few arguments. He was a very loyal and gentle partner. I miss him…every day…" Darren replied, looking down wishfully at the old Polaroid.

"How did you two meet?"

"I met Tristan at his job at a local junkyard. I had just turned sixteen, and he was twenty."

"I thought Poleepkwa didn't start courting until they were twenty?" Kai asked.

"We didn't. I was attracted to him, yes; but we waited until I was the proper age before we began seeing each other romantically. A year later, he and I became partners at a small ceremony held by the Poleepkwa who raised me. We were together for such a short time…for Poleepkwa, anyway."

"Byron said that he…passed…in an accident." Kai said, before she could realize that it was a bit tactless.

"Yes…" Darren said, and Kai didn't press the issue; he'd talk in and/or when he was ready.

"So… He's bigger than you are…he was older, right?" she said, making awkward small talk.

"Yes. From his job in the mines. I stayed home cleaning while he worked during the day."

"You stayed home? So…you were like…the wife?" the human inquired, not knowing the proper term for gender roles involving hermaphrodites.

"I was the submissive partner, yes."

"You?_ You were the submissive one?_" Kai exclaimed incredulously.

"Yes; is this hard to believe?" Darren asked.

"Well, yeah. You don't seem like the submissive type, Darren."

"I've had to manage my own life since Tristan departed this one. I actually used to be much like Erin and Alexander."

"Seriously? Whoa; Tristan must have been pretty tough."

"He could be a bit coarse at times; but…never with me. He was a very gentle person when we were alone together…" he said quietly, his eyes getting a bit misty. Kai decided to change the subject.

"Uhm, so you're not mad at me for asking?"

"No; like I said, I was acting a bit boorish lately. Please accept my apology."

"It's fine. Oh… Will you want a day off for the…anniversary?"

"If it's possible; I'd rather be alone for that day."

"I'll put it down in the book; you've got some off time coming, anyway. Now, let's get back to work, okay?"

"Thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me; there are some cases of meat in the freezer that need to be stocked." the Poleepkwa said, and stood to excuse himself.

Kai was about to get up as well, when a scurrying got her attention. In a moment, the door opened, and Angelo stood panting on the other side.

"Kai! Kai!" he said, and Edgar joined him a second later, also out of breath.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" she asked, jumping up. Darren tensed, obviously thinking MNU had something to do with the situation.

"There's a call for you! That Wallace lady!" Edgar said excitedly.

"I'd better get that…" the human muttered, giving Darren a gentle pat on the shoulder as she walked by.

She hurried into the other room, the little ones scurrying around her feet, and Darren trailing behind. The phone was off the hook and lying on the counter, with Jane Wallace patiently waiting on the other end.

"Hello?" Kai said, picking up the phone.

"Yeah, Kai… There was someone out here a minute ago who was asking about you. He said his name was…just a minute… Ami… Ami Yamamoto." Wallace said.

"Holy freaking shit!" the younger woman exclaimed, then collected herself when she saw the looks everyone was giving her.

"Sorry. Did you say Ami Yamamoto?"

"Yeah… Skinny little Japanese guy, light brown hair, about five foot four…"

"Yeah, that's Ami… Where did he go?"

"I let him in, once he got your lawyer on the phone to vouch for him. He should be coming there now." the guard said, sounding somewhat amused by the entire situation.

"Thanks for the heads-up; I'll–" she began, but was cut off by the shop's bell tinkling.

"I'll…have to talk to you later…" she finished, and hung up the phone.


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer – Don't own District 9.**

**Please review this chapter, PLEASE!**

**Chapter 22**

The young man stood in the doorway, holding an old black canvas duffle bag and looking curiously around at the Poleepkwa standing there staring at him.

He was about five foot four; slender, but well-built. He was fairly handsome; a bit above average, but didn't really stand out much in a crowd. He was wearing a blue Hawaiian shirt with bright green and yellow flowers, old olive-colored jeans, and combat boots. His hair was a light brown color, and fell past his ears, and every now and then he pushed his bangs out of his large, dark eyes, only to have them fall back again.

This was Ami Yamamoto; Kai's only (human) friend, and son of Lily Yamamoto…and surely the one who'd left all the voicemails.

"Hey." he nodded at the nonhumans, in his familiar easygoing manner. One wouldn't know it to look at him, but he had graduated high school at sixteen and began college at seventeen. He was twenty-one now; the same age as Kai, and on the fast track to major success in the field of law.

The nonhumans clicked at him curiously, cocking their heads and waving their antennae to get a better idea of his scent. It was quite obvious that they'd never seen a human quite like this before. He seemed just as at ease with the aliens as Kai did; or, at least more so than most humans. Seeing that the two humans hadn't seen each other in awhile, they left the room, saying that they had other things to attend to.

"Ami!" Kai said, running to the other human. They hadn't seen each other since Ami had gone to Hawaii to live with his father and his family a couple of years previous, and had missed each other terribly. Kai hadn't gotten a call from her friend because the region that his family lived in was unsuitable for Internet and phones; which was the reason why they'd chosen it in the first place.

"Kai!" he exclaimed, dropping his bag and hugging her.

They finally released each other and stood back to see how the other had changed.

"You cut your hair!" Ami observed, in a Japanese accent. In truth, Kai's hair had been down to her knees until the age of nineteen; a true accomplishment.

"You grew yours…and you stopped dying it blue!"

"Yeah; they kind of frowned on that back at the college…"

"I thought you were done with school?" Kai asked, confused.

"I am; I teach night and summer classes on whatever I'm qualified for. It pays pretty well and it gets me away from trying to practice that dance where you wave around the flaming sticks…"

"I wasn't going to say anything, but your eyebrows do seem to have grown back…"

"Thanks for noticing that… It took forever… By the way, we managed to rebuild my bedroom after that…incident…"

They stood there awkwardly for a few minutes, until Kai cleared her throat.

"So, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Oh, right… Well, because the economy sucks ass right now, the college had to give me the axe on the teaching job. I was hanging out with my dad on top of the volcano, debating whether or not to go back to Tokyo to stay with mom for awhile, when I realized I had a choice. It was simple; I could either go back to Japan and assimilate into polite society, find a cushy law career and make a butt load of money, or go to Africa and live amongst aliens, evil corporations who have their own soldiers, and witchcraft-practicing gangs. So I went to see your dad and he told me where you were." he explained.

"How long ago?"

"About two weeks or so. I sent you a bunch of messages; don't you ever check your phone?"

"It's a long story… How long are you here for?"

"Well, after I talked to your dad, I decided to come over here and help you out until things pick up back home." he replied.

"That'll be awesome, but you've got to fill out a bunch of forms to live here." Kai warned, remembering the sea of forms and documents that she had to read over, sign, send, and, in some cases, redo before she had been allowed to stay in the District.

"I'll get on it today; that Wallace lady out front said the same thing when I got to the gate. By the way, is she seeing anyone?"

"I don't know… Anyway, I'm sure you don't have anywhere to stay tonight; so why not crash in the break room? We've got a couch and TV in there." Kai offered.

"Thanks; I've got jetlag bad. Hey, weren't there some Poleepkwa here a minute ago?" he asked, looking around.

"They're probably in the break room talking about you right now." Kai informed him.

"Speaking of talking…I can't speak Poleepkwa." Ami admitted, smiling sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it; Byron might be able to help you. He's the one who taught me in college. As a matter of fact, let me introduce you to everyone. I'm sure they'll be happy to meet you; I'm trying to help them see that humans aren't all assholes." Kai said, and led him back to the break room, where Darren, Byron, and Alexander were standing together in the center of the room, clicking and chirping quietly amongst themselves. Angelo and Edgar were in one corner of the room, talking quietly to each other; possibly wondering what the grownups were doing.

"Hey guys; I'd like you to meet Ami Yamamoto." she said, leaving the other human and venturing into the small group of nonhumans.

"You two seem to know each other quite well." Byron observed.

"We've been friends since childhood. He's going to be working here for awhile, so I want you guys to show him how things work around here."

"Does he even understand our language?" Darren asked, as Edgar and Angelo ventured over to gaze up at the newest addition to the staff. Ami bent down and looked back at the tiny aliens, apparently finding them as fascinating as they found him.

"That's actually something I wanted to talk to _you_ about, Byron… He doesn't understand a word of the Poleepkwa language…" Kai admitted.

"I would teach him, Kai…but I'm so busy with work ad the children… You speak our language…"

"I can understand and read it; but I can't make the vocalizations like Poleepkwa do… What about one of you? I wouldn't normally want to impose something like this on you, but I don't think we have a choice. He's going to be working here; we need to be able to communicate with each other for things to go smoothly. What about you, Darren?" the human observed.

"Don't you remember? You've got that big shipment of cat food coming in over the next few days. I'll be busy with that." Darren reminded.

"What abut you, Alexander? The store's clean enough for the moment."

The grey Poleepkwa was about to respond, when they were interrupted in the most unlikely of ways.

"We can do it!" Edgar said, scurrying over to peer up at the human. Angelo followed, pulling Ami by one finger.

"You two? You're too young…" Kai said.

"We can! We don't have anything else to do all day; and you're usually so busy! Let us teach him how to understand us!" Angelo piped up.

"Are…are they talking about me?" Ami asked, as Angelo still hadn't let go of his finger.

"They want to teach you Poleepkwa." Kai said.

"Can they?"

"I… Okay… I guess it wouldn't hurt… I'll have to help you at first, though. There's no way you can get started without a translator. When Byron first taught us in college, there was an interpreter there to help us understand." she explained.

"That's cool with me." Ami said, and the little ones chirped happily.

"All right. But you two can't just stop whenever you get bored; this is very important, okay?" Kai cautioned.

"We understand! We'll be good teachers!" they promised.

"Okay then. Now let me introduce you to everyone… This is Edgar and Angelo; Angelo's older by a year. They're going to be teaching you Poleepkwa… They're also in charge of being cute and sweet…" she said, indicating each child in turn.

"We've met." Ami laughed.

"This is Darren de Graffe. He's in charge of unloading the stock and other such things around here."

"Nice to meet you." the other human said, seemingly a little nervous around the seven-foot alien.

"This is Gordon Byron. He does the inventory, bookkeeping, and all that stuff; mainly because he's good at it and I hate to do it."

"Hello…" Ami said quietly, raising an eyebrow at the odd name.

"And this is Alexander Grey. He sort of fell into the job of cleaning this place; and does a great job of it." at this, Alexander nodded shyly.

"Hi…"

"Well, that's everyone. Before you hand in your application, you might want to go get a jump on those documents. It took me almost three months to get my stuff together. Trust me; MNU does not appreciate it when people screw around with their rules." Kai advised.

"Stupid MNU…" Ami muttered.

"Hey, don't mess with those guys. They've got a mean streak a mile long and they're not afraid to show it. You'll notice them around here from time to time; wearing full riot gear and carrying guns that are bigger than they are. The ones in Gebeuren are under the command of a guy by the name of Thomas Parker." the Poleepkwa all shuddered at the name "He's a real psycho, and the one who made up most of the rules around here. Keep out of his way. I don't think he'll kill you; but he'll have you out of here and on the next plane home before nightfall if you get on his radar." Kai cautioned.

"You seem scared…" Ami noted.

"I'm not scared of Parker; he can't lay a hand on a human unless they're a direct threat. The problem is, if we make trouble, the residents of the District are the ones MNU takes it out on."

"Isn't it wonderful how we treat our fellow living things?" Ami said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Indeed." Byron muttered flatly, and the other aliens all clicked in agreement.

"Well then; let's go get you started with those documents…" Kai said, breaking the silence that had followed Ami's statement.


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Remember, I'm not putting out another chapter unless I get two reviews!**

**Chapter 24**

_Three days later…_

**A/N – I know there's a lot of time skips!**

"Why are there so many papers? I think I've filled out this same form three times already!"

Ami and Kai were sitting in the store after closing time, filling the last batch of documents needed for the man's "citizenship" in the Gebeuren.

This time, the paperwork had gone a lot faster, thanks to Kai's experience with the documents. There weren't as many as when she had filled them out; mainly because there weren't any building permits and things this go around. They were nearing the end of the stack of documents, and would turn them in to the MNU's head office the next day, if all went well.

"Don't feel bad; we have to fill out just as many papers to get jobs. MNU makes us fill out papers for a lot of things; most things, actually…" Darren said, thoughtfully.

"My daddy said that he had to fill out a whole bunch of forms in order to have me. He said it took him months, but they finally let him have the paper that he needed for my egg. He told me that he'd do it a hundred times over, though, because he loves me so much." Angelo said, through a mouthful of the raw lean beef that Kai had given the two for a snack. She'd switched to lean after Erin had gently asked her to refrain from giving Edgar too much junk food, as he was getting slightly pudgy and a bit sluggish in the mornings.

"Jesse's got a sweet side…" Kai smiled.

"And…and my daddies said that…that they waited a long time to have me, and that they had a lot of o…op…opticals to overcome before Daddy Erin could lay my egg. Something about how they'd protect me like they should have protected…somebody… They stopped talking when I came in the room. Grownups seem to do that a lot." Edgar said, and Angelo nodded in agreement.

The adults in the room gave each other meaningful looks; Erin and James had undoubtedly been speaking of their first child.

"It's _obstacles_, little one; they had many _obstacles_ to overcome." Byron corrected gently.

"Yeah, those! Daddy James said that I was really special, and that they really, really wanted me and had for a really long time." the youngest Poleepkwa chirped.

"They did. I was there when they came here. They were overjoyed when you were born." Byron assured, and Edgar trilled happily.

"Kai, where do you want this?" Darren asked, indicating a case of toilet paper that had come that morning.

He'd been growing more and more despondent over the past few days, and Kai was considering simply giving him the rest of the week off to get it out of his system. Though she did feel for Darren's loss, she did have a business to run and would need the Poleepkwa in top form for the coming weeks. It was tourist season in South Africa, and the seemingly eternal political, economic and social turmoil that seemed to dominate the country didn't appear to have any adverse effects on the swarm of people wanting to take in the sights.

"Put it in the stock room. We'll put it out here when we run out of the other." she replied.

Darren trudged off with the paper, leaving the others to their work.

"We've got almost all of it done; and it's almost time for the afternoon rush, anyway. We can finish the rest of it tomorrow." Kai said, yawning.

"We can do more lessons tomorrow, too." Angelo said to Ami.

Over the past few days, the two little aliens had been dutifully teaching the human their language as best they knew how. He was making some progress, but, like Kai, was having some trouble with certain words and sounds. A human mouth was not meant to truly "speak" Poleepkwa; it just didn't have the right physical properties to make the incredibly large array of sounds that made up the language of the nonhumans. The text of the language was fairly standard; it was a bit like Japanese, in which each character was a different syllable or sound, and each character could also mean a different word or idea. In truth, a great deal of the language was body language. A movement of the mouthparts or flick of the antennae could convey every emotion on the spectrum, from euphoric pleasure to agonizing pain.

**A/N – I'm doing my best here, but if anyone has any real information on the Poleepkwa language, please feel free to PM me, but not with URL links, please!**

"You're learning really quick!" Edgar chirped happily in agreement.

"Really quickly." Byron corrected gently, and the little one huffed slightly and rolled his large eyes.

They quickly put the forms back into their folder and hurried to prepare for the flood of Poleepkwa coming home from their jobs. Though curfews in the Gebeuren were strictly enforced from seven to ten, there were a number of nonhumans in the District who had jobs at all sorts of odd hours. The ones that would be coming were generally disposers of Johannesburg's garbage, and worked from about ten at night to six in the morning. They came at this time every day when they were waking up from their day's sleep to buy groceries, a few toiletries, and, of course, cat food. In a few minutes, there would be at least two dozen Poleepkwa arriving to make their purchases.

Soon enough, the first of them arrived. He walked into the store and came up to the counter with a few cans of cat food.

Kai counted the cans and told him the price, at which he seemed a little shocked.

"Are you sure? They charge so much more for it in the District…" he said, as the human handed him his change back.

"That's the going rate for this brand. I believe in charging people fairly." she replied.

The Poleepkwa uttered a series of clicks that roughly translated to something like "may you enjoy good health" and left, as a fresh wave of his fellows entered the shop. Several customers sat at the tables, enjoying their food and talking freely with one another. When Kai had first begun business, there was an air of distrust and caution from the nonhumans who ventured to buy from her, but once it was made public that she was selling cat food and fresh meat at affordable prices, there was no stopping the aliens from coming to the establishment. The gates on either side of the Gebeuren were kept busy much of the day with all the traffic going to and from the store, and she had heard some grumblings from the enforcers about the difficulty of controlling so much traffic. A security risk, they said.

At last, the throng thinned out a bit, and then became a semi-steady trickle of customers. The only problem that arose was when an underage Poleepkwa attempted to purchase cat food, for which he was chastised by his parent, who apologized for the young one's behavior.

The last Poleepkwa out of all the customers was a brownish-green one with a very interesting face. One eye was the usual amber color, but the other one was a striking blue color. Kai had never seen a nonhuman with such ocular pigmentation, but thought it better not to comment on it, as the alien might think it rude. He was wearing a tattered pair of pants and the remains of an old collared shirt, and had an old school backpack over one shoulder. He was making the purchase of a large piece of goat meat, and was taking a few crinkled and torn bills from his pocket when a sudden noise got the attention of the entire store.

The sound came from the front of the building, where the door had been roughly flung open by none other than Sergeant Parker, wearing his customary full body armor and carrying his massive rifle.

"Line up, you fucking Prawns! Random contraband check!" he barked, a rather sadistic smile on his face.

All of the Poleepkwa in the building muttered as they rose to go outside to lean against the wall with their arms spread, like criminals did when they were being searched by the police. Even little Angelo and Edgar were not immune to this treatment; Parker snarled at them to hurry, nudging Angelo with the butt of his weapon, which sent him scurrying out, chirping in alarm and with Edgar close behind. Kai's blood boiled at this.

As he passed her, Kai thought she heard the Poleepkwa with the mismatched eyes mutter something, and again as he was herded out along with the rest of his kind.

"Fook!"


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 24**

"You get your prawn ass out here, too!" Sergeant Parker snapped, as the Poleepkwa with the mismatched eyes hesitated at the rear of the group.

"Fook!" he muttered nervously, and Kai wondered if she'd mistranslated the word.

Mismatch hesitated for another second, and then trudged out along with the rest of the aliens, clutching his backpack and uttering nervous clicks and chirps. His antennae were waving wildly back and forth, and his secondary arms were tucked into his abdomen and were trembling. Perhaps the Sergeant didn't realize it, but Kai knew from experience that the body language was that of a Poleepkwa under serious stress. She wasn't going to say anything; but Kai was certain that this particular nonhuman did indeed have some sort of contraband on his person.

The human flashed back to a news story she'd seen once about a large cache of Poleepkwa weapons and wondered if this particular nonhuman was carrying any sort of armaments.

"_But then again,"_ she thought, _"contraband doesn't necessarily mean weapons."_

It was true; contraband could mean anything. A nonhuman's possession of an adult magazine could be interpreted as conspiracy to have sex with a human. Possession of something that looked too nice or new could be construed as having been stolen. There was no doubt in Kai's mind that there would be some trouble involving this particular nonhuman.

"You're the shop owner; you have to come out here too, and that other guy." Sergeant Parker said, a little less gruffly.

Kai followed quietly, not wanting to make trouble for her employees and customers. The aliens were still lined up against one of the brown brick walls of the shop, muttering quietly to each other. Though she couldn't smell it, she knew that they were likely sending out clouds of pheromones that denoted their fear and frustration at the entire situation.

Mismatch took his place at the end of the line, and Sergeant Parker began to pace up and down the row of "suspects". After a couple of minutes, he turned to Kai and began to speak, hoisting his rifle over one shoulder, but not enough to hinder its use, if it came to it.

"I don't speak prawn; I just give them orders, and my interpreter's out injured today. You seem to be able to talk to these things, so you're gonna translate what they say for me. Don't try any funny stuff, though; I've got no problem putting one of these fuckers down…done it before, I'll do it again." he warned. Kai nodded and stepped forward, not wanting to test Parker's limits.

"All right, I've already called for backup, and they'll be here any second. What's going to happen is this; we're going to search all of you for contraband, and you're going to cooperate with us. If you go along with the search peaceably, we can all go back to our lives no problem, if you resist, my men and I have full authority to exercise any force we deem necessary to deal with any troublemakers. This girl here will translate if you have any questions, but I'm sure that all of you bugs are familiar with this procedure." he barked, walking up and down the wall again.

One of the Poleepkwa, a large tan specimen wearing a torn pair of slacks, clicked for Kai's attention. She listened to his question for a moment, then translated back to Parker.

"He wants to know why they're being searched." she said.

"Fine… The pencil pushers at the head office say we have to give valid reason for any search; so here it is: Yesterday MNU found an incredibly large cache of weapons collected by a prawn gang. Since a lot of you prawns are from the District and not the Gebeuren, you're all under a lot less restriction than the others. We run background checks on every single inhabitant of this sector, but the rest of you are basically a mystery to us. So, we're going to search you for any weapons of any type that you may currently have on your persons. If we find so much as a pair of scissors or slingshot, we're going to assume you're up to something shady and haul your bug ass into the interrogation rooms."

"That's pretty harsh." Ami muttered.

"What's harsh, kid, is the fact we're two steps away from anarchy in the District, and if it gets any worse we'll have to declare a state of martial law for our guys stationed there. There are human and alien gangs running around everywhere, whores on every corner, guns and drugs out in the open. We've got that Wilkus van de Merwe freak hiding out somewhere, the prawns are harder to control than ever since their damn ship took off, and those fucking protesters are camped outside the gates again saying that we're too rough on the aliens! Not to mention that we've got some pro-prawn eco terrorist group sending death threats to our offices whenever the mood strikes them… Sorry if I seem "too harsh"; but it's my job to look after the _human_ race, so be grateful!"

"Don't the Poleepkwa get searched going in and out of the Gebeuren anyway?" Kai asked.

"Yeah, but you've got a lot of them coming in at different times throughout the day. There's only one person at either gate most of the time, so there's a good chance that some contraband can get through. Truth be told, Validus, your little shop has caused somewhat of a problem for MNU when it comes to matters of security." Parker replied.

"Sir! Enforcement Squad No. 47 reporting for duty!"

Everyone turned to see no less than twenty men wearing the same black body armor as the Sergeant approaching from a heavily-armored black truck. The vehicle had apparently crept up as Sergeant Parker was lecturing Ami, and was now sitting in the middle of the street.

"Fine. Your orders are as follows: search every single nonhuman here, and then the building behind me, for contraband of any kind. If you find anything suspicious or unusual, bring it and the one it belongs to directly to me." with this, he turned on his heel and went to stand in the shade of the front of the shop.

The enforcers spread out and began searching every single Poleepkwa, starting with the first in line. They were very thorough; searching the aliens from antennae to toe, but didn't seem to be finding anything suspicious…yet. The human was certain that that would change when they got to Mismatch, who was watching the soldiers search his fellow aliens and trembling, trying to be nonchalant in the way he gripped the strap of his tattered backpack. Kai's heart sank; it was only a matter of time until the armed men got to where Mismatch was standing…

"Sir, I think we've got something here!"

Kai almost yelped out loud from the tension and looked around. She gasped when she saw one of the enforcers pointing a gun at a Poleepkwa, who was lying on the ground at his feet with his hands behind his head. Another man was bending over said Poleepkwa, looking at something that the human couldn't quite see. A closer look revealed that the nonhuman on the ground was…Darren.


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Sorry for any offense taken at the language in the chapter.**

**Chapter 25**

"Fuck!" Kai exclaimed, and rushed over to Darren, who was lying on the ground with no less than five MNU enforcers with rifles standing above him. Sergeant Parker was being handed the thing that the other enforcer had taken from the Poleepkwa.

"Get back!" Sergeant Parker commanded, looking away from the thing.

"What are you doing? He doesn't have anything to hide!" Kai protested.

"He's been here with us all day!" Ami agreed.

"Kai Validus and Ami Yamamoto, if you persist, you can and will be charged with interfering with official MNU business!" Parker warned.

"But he hasn't done anything!" the woman persisted.

"Then what's _this_?" the MNU operative questioned gruffly, showing her what he'd been looking at. It was Darren's picture of him and Tristan.

"A picture; what's it look like? What's the problem?" Ami spoke up.

"He was hiding it!" Parker accused, turning back to Darren, who was looking urgently up at the photograph.

"How?" Kai shot back furiously.

"One of my officers caught him with the picture in his pocket! When he tried to take it and examine it, the prawn resisted; we acted accordingly." the Sergeant explained.

"You need to read your own company's laws; a photograph is not contraband unless it somehow depicts objects or individuals performing actions that directly influence the operations of MNU and/or the individuals thereof or endanger national or international security. Article 35 of the MNU's Nonhuman Contraband Act clearly states that photographs of explosives, drugs, weapons, stolen goods, or perverse and/or violent sexual acts and the like may be confiscated, but pretty much everything else is fair game. Under your own laws, you've got no legal right to take that from him!" Ami quoted.

"Maybe not; but his resisting is cause for concern. The last thing we need is a prawn riot down here… What is this, anyway?" he asked, looking closer at the Polaroid.

"Looks like two prawns, sir." another enforcer muttered.

"Yeah, but who's the other one?"

"My partner!" Darren said, and Kai translated.

"So where is _he_?"

"He is no longer in this life." Kai translated for the Poleepkwa.

"So why are you keeping this?"

"Why do you keep pictures? Look, I'll vouch for him, I'll…sign some forms…just give him his picture back." Kai said.

"Sir, we can't really take it from him if it's not a weapon or other contraband. Besides, think of all the paperwork we'll have to do if we bring him in." one of the subordinates said quietly.

"Fair enough; I don't want to fill out all those forms for some old picture of a couple of queer prawns… But still…this one was causing trouble…we can't overlook that." he said thoughtfully, glaring at Darren.

"Just fine the bastard and let's get with the search. It's fucking hot out here...sir." someone in the group of enforcers growled.

"A fine? All right… I must be getting fucking weak… Yeah, all right… It'll be five hundred, due tomorrow morning. You'll get this back when I get the money." Parker said, and tucked the picture away in a vest pocket. Darren let out what could only be described as a whimper as he looked at his possession.

"Great, now let's hurry up before we all die of heatstroke out here…" the same enforcer from a moment ago said. The others all muttered in agreement and began to resume their search. Darren got up from the ground and went back to standing against the wall with the others.

One by one, every Poleepkwa was searched without further incident. Kai watched as Darren went to stand with a group of nonhumans who had been deemed free of suspicion. There was a slight problem with Edgar and Angelo, as the two yelped and trembled in fear when they were caught and-rather roughly-searched. At last, they reached the last Poleepkwa, the one with the mismatched eyes, and began to search him. At first, he seemed like he would resist the attempts to remove the backpack, but thought better of it. Mismatch was tense, and looked as though he might try to retrieve his belongings, or even run, but settled for clicking nervously and wringing his hands.

"Why do they insist on carrying this crap with them?" Parker muttered, as he took the alien's backpack from him, while the owner looked on anxiously.

"They're like packrats or something…or hermit crabs, I don't know…" somebody muttered.

One of the enforcers dumped the backpack onto the ground, allowing everyone in the vicinity to see them. There was nothing really out of the ordinary: a can of cat food, some crinkled money, a chewed pencil and pad of yellowing paper, food wrappers, and couple of pieces of rubber tires. The only odd thing in the bag was a flower made from bits of aluminum soda cans.

"The hell is this?" Sergeant Parker asked, holding the crafted object up to the light.

"I found it on the ground a while back. It was interesting, so I kept it." Mismatch explained, as Kai translated.

"Fucking prawns… Why do you creatures always collect this trash? It's disgusting!" the human spat, but tossed the flower back into the pile of Mismatch's belongings.

"Probably 'cause it's shiny…" one of the group snickered.

"Well, in any case, we didn't have to expend too much manpower. Let's get out of here; I hate the smell of these prawns….it'll take forever to get the stench out of my uniform." Parker said, sounding a little disappointed that he didn't get to kill something.

The MNU men left, leaving everyone to breathe a sigh of relief. Darren looked after the departing enforcers, obviously anxious about his photograph. Mismatch began collecting his things from the ground, while Alexander and Byron moved to comfort the two little ones, who were still shaking from their ordeal. Ami went among the others, making sure that they were all right and that the enforcers hadn't hurt them.

"Fucking dogs…" Kai said, her rage apparent in her voice. She went over to Darren to see how he was doing.

"Five hundred rand… I can't afford it. I've got my house and all the other fees…" he said, as she went to stand beside him.

"I'll help you, Darren; don't worry about it." the human promised.

"I'd have to pay you back over time…"

"I trust you. I'll give you the money and you can get your picture back tomorrow morning. Trust me; I'll be speaking to the head office about this." she assured.

"No; I don't want any more trouble." the alien said, and Kai sighed, but decided to drop it.

"I just realized something." Darren thought out loud, after a moment.

"What's that?" Kai asked.

"They forgot to search you and Ami." he replied, giving a weak smile.


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 26**

"So, you're really going to give Darren a loan?"

Ami and Kai were sweeping up the shop after the afternoon rush. Kai had given the Poleepkwa the rest of the day off, due to them being too agitated to concentrate on their work. The other customers had left, but not before the human woman had offered her most sincere apologies to them for the day's events and practically begged for their continued patronage. Once word of the aggressive search had spread via a few of the nonhumans on break from the mines, Erin, James, and Jesse had taken the rest of their day off and rushed back to the store to make sure their children were all right. Darren had gone home, still depressed about his picture, and Byron was taking Alexander home to help him get over the experience.

The only Poleepkwa in the place was Mismatch, who hadn't got the opportunity to pay for his meat, and whom Kai had invited to stay and eat his meal. Though he had said that there was no need, Kai was thinking of doing what she'd talked to Darren about and filing an official complaint with MNU about the methods of their employees. However, after thinking on it for awhile, she'd decided that Darren was likely right; bringing down the ire of Sergeant Parker and his men would be a lot worse for business than the occasional search…

"Yeah. That picture means a lot to him, and I trust him to pay it back." his friend replied, looking for the dustpan.

"I guess he can't really avoid you if he decided not to repay you… Where's that damn dustpan?" Ami asked, looking around his immediate area for the cleaning implement.

"Here, use this newspaper…" Kai offered, handing it to him.

"I keep telling people to leave that thing in one place when they're done with it… Hey, look at this!" he said, looking at the paper and laying the broom against the wall.

"I don't want to hear about who gave birth to Elvis' reincarnation this week." Kai said flatly, rolling her eyes.

"No, it's a story about that guy MNU's looking for… Wilkus Something-or-Other…" the man said, and showed the article to Kai.

"MNU questions Tania Van de Merwe in connection with deviant husband's disappearance." the woman read off. On the cover of the paper was a picture of a forty-ish blonde woman in a pink shirt and tan pants surrounded by many MNU workers and officials in what appeared to be a living room setting.

"Van de Merwe, that's it! What happened?" Ami questioned.

"This Thursday, MNU operatives were sent to the home of one Tania van de Merwe, wife of known sex pervert and fugitive Wilkus van de Merwe, was briefly taken into custody in conjunction with the ongoing investigation concerning the search for her husband, who is believed to be the carrier of an unspecified disease brought about by sex with an infected nonhuman, or "prawn". Wilkus van de Merwe escaped MNU custody some months ago, a day or so before the alien ship previously hovering over the area known as "District 9" left the planet. Mrs. van de Merwe had no comment for reporters concerning the interrogation or her husband's whereabouts. Tania van de Merwe ne Smit is the daughter of MNU Director Piet Smit, who is in charge of…blah blah blah…" she finished reading the titles and put the paper down. The human noticed that Mismatch was trying to be subtle as he craned his head over to hear them better… Did Poleepkwa follow tabloid stories like some humans did?

"So, they're bugging her to see if she knows anything about where her husband is?" Ami asked, to clarify.

"Yeah. I guess they think that she might have some sort of contact with him or something."

"Do you think he did?"

"Do I think who did what?"

"That van de Merwe guy… Do you think he did…what he was accused of?"

"I don't know… It's none of our business if he did." Kai said, and began using the paper as a dustpan.

"Excuse me, may I see that?" Mismatch asked, as Kai was about to throw the paper away.

"Yeah, sure… You can read English?" she asked, dusting off the paper and handing it to him.

"Er, something I picked up a while back…" the Poleepkwa muttered, taking the paper and reading the article for himself. Kai raised an eyebrow at the strange response, but shrugged it off.

"Well, I can't blame the guy for wanting to try new things; all men do." Ami said.

"Come on, Ami, enough with that! First off, there was never any concrete proof that van de Merwe ever had any such contact with any nonhuman. Second, there has never been any case of a human picking up any sort of disease from a Poleepkwa. True, a nonhuman could carry something in bodily fluids from another human, but if there were ever Poleepkwa STDs, they would surely have been discovered before now. Third, even though there is a trade in interspecies sex, the number of human/alien liaisons of any type is much lower than the news makes it seem. Byron told me himself that humans aren't really that attractive to his species, anyway. The whole thing is just too implausible."

"I guess." Ami said.

"Besides; have you ever seen a picture or video footage of the guy? He's kind of a funny-looking little fucker. Skinny, twitchy, kind of wimpy… From what I've heard, he was in a pretty good position because of his father-in-law and his marriage. A guy like that's not going to risk all that for a quick fuck." Kai said, and Mismatch gave her a strange look over his paper.

"Speaking as a man, I'm not sure." the other human muttered.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, we like to try stuff sometimes…weird stuff…or at least, we think about it. Anyway, look at his wife…she looks kind of those cougars you see at the bars. Probably frigid or something, if he had to go outside his species…nothing wrong with Poleepkwa; I'm just saying." Ami covered, noticing the look Kai was giving him.

"Frigid? And that constitutes cheating?"

"Doesn't make it right; just makes it easier. My guess is either frigid or prude. She looks like she could be a nagger though…or a whiner. Maybe he got tired of her crap and went somewhere else to get some easy pu-" Ami began, reading a piece of junk mail lying nearby.

"ENOUGH! She's an angel and I won't fookin' listen to you fookers talking about her that way!" Mismatch roared (actually, a loud series of clicks and chirps, accompanied by agitated antennae-waving, posturing and mouthparts-moving) and rose to his full six-and-a-half-feet height. Ami and Kai's attention immediately turned to the Poleepkwa, and both of them got ready for a possible fight.

"Calm down, there's no reason to get aggravated…" Kai said, as the nonhuman fumed.

"Yeah… Why do you care, anyway?" Ami asked.

"I… I… Fook…" Mismatch began, but couldn't seem to find a good excuse for his actions.

"What, do you...know her or something?" Kai asked.

"Y-yes… I did…once." the alien said quietly, looking at the picture of the woman.

"How? No offense, but they don't…uhm…like…Poleepkwa in the area where that woman lives." Kai said, feeling uncomfortable with the wording of the sentence.

"She and I met a few times." Mismatch said simply, his blue and amber eyes going slightly misty, as though recalling fond memories.

"Does she volunteer with Poleepkwa?" Ami asked. Kai was about to ask the same thing, wondering if maybe the woman had been in some sort of charity or done mission work.

"No…" he was getting a little twitchy, and was looking around anxiously.

"Does she work for MNU?" Kai questioned gently, seeing that he was getting more nervous. This guy had something to hide…

"Did you meet her, like, through her husband?" the human woman asked, the idea being to give the nonhuman a possible explanation. She was going to have to keep an eye on this one for the time being. Ami could apparently see it in her face, and let her work alone for the moment.

"Yes! Her husband worked with MNU! He came around giving out pamphlets for District 10; she came with him!" he seemed to jump at the bait.

"Okay." Kai said, as in "I'm satisfied with your answer for now". Mismatch didn't seem to pick up on this, and went back to looking, rather wishfully, at the paper. Kai and Ami excused themselves and adjourned to the break room for a private conversation.

"What's your plan for this guy?" the man asked, sitting down on the couch as soon as Kai had locked the door.

"He's keeping secrets." his friend replied quietly.

"I figured the same thing. He waited for us to lay out a line of questions, instead of just telling us how he knew that woman… You don't think he knows anything about this van de Merwe guy, do you?"

"I don't know… The way he acted, you'd think he was her husband or something. You don't normally have that reaction when it's just someone you met once or twice. I think he's more involved with her than he's letting on."

"You don't think he's fu–" Ami began, wigging his eyebrows suggestively.

"I don't know, but I don't think so. Why does your mind always have to go there?"

"It's a sickness. I need help."

"You got that right. Let's get back out there before he leaves; I want to find out where he works." Kai said. The two of them exited the room in time to see the Poleepkwa sliding the paper into his backpack.

"Klepto much?" Ami muttered, but Kai nudged him in the ribs.

"So, where are you working?" the female asked.

"I'm not." he said simply, trying not to draw attention to his backpack.

"Where'd you get the money for the meal then?" Ami asked.

"I collect things from the garbage and sell them." Kai let it end there.

"Where are you living?" she asked.

"In the District…" he said slowly, seeming reluctant to give any further explanation. Oh yes…something was definitely up with him. Feeling that it wouldn't be wise to press the stranger for any more information at present, Kai decided to let him go for the moment.

"Well, since you don't seem to have a very reliable way of making money, why don't you come back here the next time you're broke? I can give you a nice steak or something." she said, hoping to keep him coming back, but feeling guilty for playing on his hunger for her own benefit.

"That would be nice. Thank you." Mismatch said, and quietly gathered his things and excused himself.

"That was interesting." Ami said, crossing his arms and watching the stranger disappear around a corner.

"We're going to have to get to the bottom of this." Kai said, putting Mismatch's plate in the sink and running water to wash it.


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**This is a short one, I know; but in my defense I just got a Nintendo DS Lite and a copy of **_**Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days**_** and I've been playing it nonstop for the past week.**

**Chapter 27**

"Darren? Are you home?" Kai called, knocking on the Poleepkwa's faded front door.

She had gotten the money that he'd need to get his photo back and had brought it over to his home. She bit back a scoff at the sad conditions the MNU made the nonhumans live in.

Darren's house-shack, really-was about twenty-five feet square, made of peeling wood that had once been painted white, and a rusting tin roof. The door was one of those cheap particle-board numbers one usually found on the insides of low-rent houses and trailer homes. There were a couple of windows here and there, but these were somewhat dirty and cracked in places, revealing faded green curtains.

In the front "yard" was a water spigot; likely MNU's idea of "running water", and a couple of buckets that had seen better days. It was a depressing place, and the human wondered how anyone could tolerate such things. Though it was really not that late in the evening, there were no signs that anyone really lived in the neighborhood; but Kai was sure that she was being watched by at least a few people from behind the windows of the other shacks.

"Is that you, Kai?" a familiar voice replied.

Darren appeared from behind the house, holding a rag and bucket in one set of hands, and a scrub brush with several bristles missing in one of his secondary appendages.

"Yeah, I brought you the money for tomorrow. What are you doing back there?"

"Oh, I was just washing my dishes…this time of day, the water in the faucet over there is warm from the sun, so it's the best time for it." he replied.

"That's not a lot of water for washing dishes." the human pointed out, looking at the bucket.

"All I really need is a plate and cup anyway. Perhaps a bowl, every now and again. I don't have anyone to cook for anymore…" he said the last part quietly, probably remembering his partner.

"Oh… Do you need any help?" she offered, not knowing what else to say.

"N-no, thank you… I was just putting things away…"

"Well then… I brought you this for tomorrow." she said, producing from her pocket a plain white envelope containing the money.

"Thank you so much, Kai. You will never know how grateful I am for this." Darren replied quietly, setting the cleaning supplies down and accepting the envelope.

"Don't even worry about it. I trust you, and I know how much that picture means to you; I feel the same way about the ones of my mom and me."

"Yes, you mentioned once that your parent passed… It must be painful. I don't really remember mine. He died on the way to Earth."

"So who raised you than?" Kai asked, as Darren picked his bucket back up and began to walk around to the front yard to put it away.

"There was a small group of Poleepkwa-I think they might have been extended family-that dwelled together. They took me in and raised me until I was old enough to live on my own. It didn't take long until I met my Tristan. You might say that I've never really lived on my own until a few years ago. It was a difficult and painful adjustment for me, to say the least."

"You had to get used to living on your own… My dad did the same thing, but he and my mom were only married for a couple of years before I came along, and she died when I was really young too. All I've got are pictures and some old home movies, along with what my dad told me. He said that it was really difficult learning to live without her, but he had to, and did."

"It isn't easy…"

The two of them were quiet for awhile, each watching a flock of birds flying over the District and wondering what to say next. Kai finally broke the silence.

"So, you're still going to be taking off the day after tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, I'd rather be alone on that day." he replied quietly.

"Understandable, perfectly understandable. I, uhm, hope you feel better when you return to work."

"Thank you for being so understanding about this." the Poleepkwa said softly.

"No thanks necessary; you're my friend."

"Friend?" he repeated, seeming to have a hard time processing the thought.

"Yeah, we're friends…aren't we?"

"Yes…I believe we are." he gave a small smile at this.

"All right then… Well, I'll see you tomorrow…and you can get your picture back."

"I certainly hope so…"

With this, Kai smiled and turned to go back to the shop, leaving Darren to his housework.


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Okay, my AVP fic is getting into the climax, so I won't be updating this one much for awhile. As soon as I finish with the AVP story, I can have more time for other stuff. Sorry to everyone, but rest assured that I do intend to finish this story.**

**Chapter 28**

"Morning, Darren." Kai said, as the Poleepkwa entered the store. It was an hour before opening time, and she had gotten up to start making breakfast for her and Ami when her employee had knocked on the door.

He nodded in reply and began to silently move boxes here and there. The human could see that he was casting anxious glances up at the clock and out the front windows; obviously waiting for the Sergeant to arrive so he could retrieve his precious photograph.

"Relax; he'll be here. The guy's so anal, I'm sure he'll show up soon to get his money."

"I hope you are right… Tomorrow is the anniversary and I'd like to have the picture before then." Darren said quietly, as Ami came downstairs.

"Jackass… I still can't believe he can get away with crap like that…" the man muttered, pouring himself a glass of coffee from the pot near the counter.

"It'd be his word against Darren's and ours; and it'd only lead to more trouble." Kai reminded her friend, giving him a bowl of rice.

"If I give him his money, he may just return my property and leave me alone for awhile; if I go to the MNU offices and complain, he will likely want revenge. I'd prefer to remain as anonymous as possible when it comes to MNU." Darren added.

"But it's bullshit!" Ami protested.

"What is?" Byron asked, as he came into the shop, the bell tinkling at his arrival. With him was Alexander, looking a bit tired but cheerful all the same.

"That that Sergeant Parker jerk can make Darren-or anybody else, for that matter-pay him for his own property!" the human explained.

"Of course it is, Ami; but they've got the power here. Don't forget, though, that MNU are the ones letting you live here in the first place." the older alien reminded.

"But I can leave any time I want; you can't go anywhere else! You've got to just lie there and take whatever they decide to give you and smile while they feed you a shit sandwich!"

"Nice imagery, that." Darren said, a smirk coming over his face.

"And if they let us be, we will smile and eat a…shit sandwich… Believe me, once the mothership arrives on our homeworld and our people there are informed of our plight here, the humans will be eating their own shit sandwich! I await that day eagerly, as do all Poleepkwa here." Byron said.

"True and I don't blame you; but until that day you have to live like this. They treat you any way they want, only give you the resources they see fit to give you, and censor all media in and out of this place... I don't mean to offend you, but why the hell did you come here in the first place?" the man asked. Kai had wondered the same thing, many times, but had always thought it better not to ask.

"Well, to tell the truth, there are a great many Poleepkwa here who are too young to remember the homeworld. The ship was mostly populated with the younger generation. I was in what was tantamount to my early thirties when I left my planet; but I remember that our world had become a bit overcrowded. It wasn't dangerously overcrowded, but conditions were a bit uncomfortable in some places, and were downright squalid in others. The idea was to find a world on which we could create some colonies. Our leaders decided that the mothership would be built and that everyone who wished to go could do so and begin a new life elsewhere. Sights were set on Earth first, as it had intelligent life…or seemed to at the time. The ship was prepared and left the planet." Byron recalled.

"So, why were the passengers in such bad condition when we opened the ship?" Kai asked.

"From what I've heard, someone made a miscalculation with the distance from our planet to yours. It was apparently a small error, but it ended in our food and medical supplies running low before we'd even reached your world. The command module broke off the ship during its descent; it was the only way to open the doors. We were stuck inside until your people came and cut the craft open to let us out. Many died during the voyage, and others perished from malnutrition and disease even after they were rescued. There are still those who suffer from aftereffects today. Our young are more prone to sickness, those who were children during that time are not as healthy as they should be, and some have even gone mad."

"How awful…" Kai said.

"So, what happens when the rescue crew comes from your homeworld?" Ami asked.

"Hopefully we will be taken back to our world or some colony of it where we can live as we were meant to. I long to see my home again, and my family."

"There will be doctors with the rescue effort, surely; We can get the medical treatment we need from them or on our own planet." Darren added.

"And we can properly mourn for our loved ones lost. This planet has taken its fair share of our people." Alexander said quietly.

"When do you think the ship will return?" Ami asked.

"No one knows; but it didn't take us more than three years to get here. I've lived through these past thirty years on this planet; I will not die before I see the seven moons again." Byron said resolutely.

The conversation might have gone on longer, but Sergeant Parker burst in the door without knocking and ruined the atmosphere.

"All right, prawn; I'm here for my fee." he growled.

"Very well… Do you have what belongs to me?" Darren asked, reaching into his pocket for the envelope Kai had given him the day before.

"Yeah, I got your picture; no prawn's going to make a liar out of me… Hand over that envelope, and stay where you are." the human said coarsely.

Darren did as he was told and surrendered the money, which Parker rudely counted.

"All right then… I'm going to put this on the floor, and you are going to wait until I leave to get it, got it?"

"Yes." Darren replied.

"Good." he then took out the photo and tossed it down between them and began backing out of the door, his gun still raised. Eventually, he was fully outside and turned to leave the premises.

Once he was out of sight, Darren practically lunged for the picture and clutched it to his chest in relief.

"Glad that went as well as it did." Kai muttered, watching to make sure the Sergeant didn't return.

"Yeah, bribery usually goes something like that." Ami said quietly.

"What?" Kai asked, looking over at her friend, who immediately picked up his rice bowl and stuffed his face with food.


	29. Chapter 29

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**I owe you guys a long chapter, and I hope to be updating regularly soon!**

**Chapter 29**

"So Darren's not coming to work today?" Ami asked.

The morning had begun like any other; everyone had showed up and were getting on with their chores, except for Darren. Edgar and Angelo were busily teaching Ami pronouns, while Byron was organizing the inventory receipts from the week before, and Alexander had a big bucket of soapy water and was hard at work with the windows.

"That's right. He's staying home today." Kai replied.

"Why?" the other human asked, sweeping up a pile of dirt.

"Well, it's… It's the anniversary of his partner's death." Kai explained quietly.

"Oh…"

"Yes, and he needs some time alone today." Byron added.

"I didn't know…" Ami said.

"Let's just start the day…and don't say anything to Darren, okay?"

"I understand; I'll keep quiet."

_Later…_

"All right, I'll see you two tomorrow."

Kai was bidding farewell to Edgar and Angelo, who were being carried out of the store by their weary parents. The shifts at the mines would be increased by two hours for the next month, and the adult Poleepkwa were exhausted.

The day had gone over fairly well. There was the usual rush in the afternoon, and Alexander had accidentally broken a bowl, but there were no other incidents to speak of.

"Before you two go home, I have to give you your week's pay." the human said, handing each nonhuman the usual white envelope.

"Many thanks. They've changed the date that our fees are due, and this came just in time." Byron said, accepting the money.

"Yes, it used to be at the beginning of the month, now it's in the middle…I do wish that they would make up their minds." Alexander muttered.

"I guess if someone's going to extort money from you, they could at least be punctual about it…" Ami joked grimly, then saw the third envelope that Kai was holding.

"Is that Darren's?" he asked.

"Yeah. I have to go take this to him before I forget about it." Kai replied.

"Didn't you say that he needed time alone?"

"I did, but I'm just going to go over and give it to him. I won't be staying or anything." the other human explained.

"Kai, if you insist on going over to give that to him, I'd advise you to do just that, and then leave. This is a very personal day for Darren, and he likely won't wish to be disturbed. Can that not wait until tomorrow?" Byron asked, helping Alexander put on an old green windbreaker. The nights had been a bit chilly lately, and Kai thought it was cute the way the older Poleepkwa would make sure the younger was warm in the wind.

"I understand, but I don't want to forget about this. With my luck, I'll lay it on the table and end up losing it before tomorrow. I'll just pop over, give this to him, and come back here."

"I suppose that his payment is important…but don't say that I didn't warn you if he gets irritated." Byron cautioned, and held the door open for Alexander to exit. The two began walking to their homes, with Byron holding Alexander out of the cold, until a passing enforcer barked something inaudible at them and they split apart. Kai had been told that many of the MNU enforcers felt uncomfortable with the Poleepkwa showing affection in public, and had witnessed such events as this a few times since she'd come to the Gebeuren. She couldn't help smiling as Byron and Alexander resumed their holding once the enforcer was out of sight.

"Hey, I'm going into town for a bit. The local hotel just got a karaoke lounge, and I'm going to sing badly for the tourists." Ami said, putting on his black leather jacket and grabbing his cell phone and wallet.

"Don't be out too late; the local gangs have been acting up a lot more lately." Kai warned.

"Don't worry; I'll be back by eight at the latest. I'm in no hurry to mess with those guys." the other human agreed, and headed out the door.

Kai went to get her own leather jacket and keys, before putting out the "CLOSED" sign and locking up. Holding the envelope in her pocket, she made her way down the dusty street, watching the shadows made by the shacks slowly lengthen along the ground. Looking up at the sky, she saw that a storm was moving in. Large, heavy grey clouds blanketed the sky, and the wind had the smell of rain, and that strange muggy feeling that it got just before a big storm hit. Her climatic suspicions were confirmed when she heard a distant rumble of thunder over the rusting tin roofs of the shacks.

Halfway there, she thought that perhaps she should heed Byron's advice and wait for tomorrow to give Darren his money. She knew that her own father liked a little privacy on certain days that reminded him of her mother, and didn't doubt that Darren would be the same way. Still, she figured that she might as well get the task over with, since she'd already come this far.

Walking up to Darren's house, she could see that there was a faint light in the windows, almost making the derelict property look cheerful. Inhaling the rapidly chilling air, she knocked on the nonhuman's door. As she did so, a loud crack reverberated through the humid air, followed almost immediately by the white flash of lightning.

The door opened a moment later to reveal Darren. The Poleepkwa took a look at the human and cocked his head, long antennae waving in their curious manner toward her.

"Good evening, Kai; what brings you to my door this night?" he asked, sounding somewhat less than cheerful.

"Oh, I'm sorry to bother you, but I brought your weekly payment. I hope I'm not intruding on anything ." she replied, bringing out the envelope and presenting it to him.

"N-no, you aren't… Thank you for taking the time to do this…" Darren said, smiling weakly and accepting the envelope from his employer.

"Uhm, I hope I don't seem rude…but are you all right?" she asked.

"I'm fine… This night always sees me unhappy." he said, and another resounding crack and lightning flash accompanied his words.

"That one sounded close…" Kai said quietly, as a drop of water fell from the sky and landed on her head.

"It sometimes gets like this around this time of year; ever since I first came to the District. A few houses were destroyed by lightning in the last couple of years… Would you like to come in?" he asked, seemingly on an afterthought.

"Well, I don't want to bother you tonight…" Kai said, just as a torrent of rain seemed to burst from the clouds and descend to Earth. In an instant, dry streets became shallow rivers, and the whole place came alive with the sounds of rain on the many tin roofs. Darren's house had nothing covering the small cement porch, and so the human was soon drenched in cold water.

"Please, come in out of the rain…your species is subject to diseases when exposed to conditions like this…" the Poleepkwa insisted.

"Well…okay, if you're sure it won't be any trouble for you..." she said sheepishly, and walked through the door into Darren's home.

The first thing she noticed was that the place was spotlessly clean. Though the whole house was the epitome of poverty, there didn't seem to be any dirt or grime anywhere. The rough wooden floors were swept and well-maintained; the windows–while cracked–were clean, the few dishes the Poleepkwa owned were clean and stacked neatly in a door-less cabinet, the old kitchen table in one corner was neatly arranged with some papers the owner had been looking at. In one corner stood a large rectangular wooden storage crate, which had been stood long-ways on its end to make a sort of closet, inside of which hung a few pieces of old human clothing that Kai couldn't make out from the distance. There was a second room to the house, and as she looked through it, Kai saw that it contained what looked like a Queen-sized mattress on the floor, covered by a couple of blankets. The light was coming from a couple of bare bulbs in the ceiling, which flickered every now and again, and seemed as though they might go out at any second.

"Please sit down for awhile; at least until the rain stops a little." Darren said, offering her an old kitchen chair.

"Thanks… Uhm, I really hope I'm not bothering you… I can understand why you'd want to be alone today." she said, sitting opposite the alien, who moved the papers into one stack and set them on a nearby crate.

"I actually find it strange, but in truth I welcome your visit, Kai. It is nice not to have to be alone with my memories for awhile."

"You're kind of like my dad that way. When it's my parents' wedding anniversary or the day my mom died, he doesn't want to think about it either. But he throws himself into his work from morning until midnight. He'll do anything to avoid thinking about it. I've even seen him join the janitorial staff in cleaning out our corporate headquarters, just to avoid the memories." Kai said.

"Memories are all I have now…but I'd give anything to be able to avoid thinking about this night. I want to remember the good parts of my relationship with my Tristan…but it's so hard today."

The human was about to speak again, when a sudden crash of lightning turned the outside world white for a second. It must have truly been close, for cracks appeared in one of Darren's windows, and the other two shattered in their panes, and the two light bulbs exploded, showering the two with tiny shards of glass as they instinctively covered their faces. A heavy wind surged through the shack, bringing rain and blowing the stack of papers off the table to whirl around before landing in various places throughout the small room.

"Oh! It's always something!" Darren exclaimed, and moved out of his chair to shuffle across the glass-strewn floor.

"What are you doing?" Kai called, picking bits of glass out of her hair.

"I bought a flashlight for occasions such as this. The nearby city sometimes asks that MNU restrict our electricity for short periods–to save money, or some such thing–so I prepared myself. Could you look outside and see if it's just my home or if others are experiencing the same problem?" he asked, rummaging around for the flashlight.

"Yeah, of course." Kai replied, and hurried to feel around for the door. Looking outside, she could see…nothing. The entire Gebeuren seemed to be out of power. Even her store, which was admittedly the brightest thing in the place, was completely dark.

"How does it look?" the Poleepkwa called.

"Everyone's power is out; even my place. I wonder if it's the same way in the city." the human replied, closing the door. She began to worry about Ami; could be alone out on the streets in this…with the gangs. She tried to shake the anxiety away; surely her friend had gotten to the hotel by then?

"I found it! Oh, what a mess!" Darren exclaimed, looking around at his home. Turning, Kai could see what he meant.

There was glass everywhere on the floor, as well as the papers that had flown off the table. The force of the lightning strike had somehow managed to knock down one of Darren's plates, which lay broken on the floor, and there was water from the rain in several places.

"I suppose I may as well get to work…" the nonhuman sighed, and set the flashlight on the table. He went into the next room and returned with a well-used broom and dustpan, with which he began to sweep up some of the glass.

"I'll help, too." Kai said, and began collecting the papers from the floor as the Poleepkwa quietly talked to himself about the cost of replacing the windows in his home again.

"…and at fifty for one pane they're just too expensive… I'll have to use that clear plastic stuff again, and it just looks so tacky…" he was saying.

As she looked at them, the human saw that the papers looked like some sort of official documents. Bending down, she picked up one of the forms and took a quick glance at it, making sure to be discrete. She normally was not the kind of person to read other people's mail, but she was curious as to exactly what her employee had been reading. The light from the flashlight was very dim, but she could just make out the words on the document.

"_**MNU Official Certificate of Nonhuman Civil Partnership."**_ the top of the form said, and below it read:

"_This document is to confirm the civil union of Nonhumans Darren de Graffe 1713 and Tristan Gresten 145. This document affirms that the two aforementioned individuals are to be considered partners under MNU Statute 277 of the…"_ the human read quickly, before beginning to pick up the other forms. That one had been dated April 14 of 1991, almost twenty years ago.

"_So it's like a marriage license…"_ she deduced, picking up another form and glancing at it.

"_**Official Registration for Production of Offspring."**_

"_A license to have children." _she thought with a sniff.

"_This document authorizes one Darren de Graffe 240 that he/she may produce ONE offspring by the date assigned in the following paragraphs. If no living child is presented to the MNU Department of Family and Housing by the date, the holder of this document will be dropped from the list of those eligible for child registrations."_

Kai read this with a slight chill, and moved on to the next form, but was somewhat surprised that it read the same thing, and another after that. She concluded sadly that Darren and his partner must have lost three children in some form or the other. Making sure the Poleepkwa was still busy with his sweeping, she reached for the fifth and final form.

"_**Official Death Certificate."**_

The human's heart skipped a beat as she glanced at the final document.

"_This form acknowledges the passing of one Tristan de Graffe 145 on this, the sixth day of August, 2001."_

Quickly, she gathered the forms into one pile and laid them back on the table, putting a cracked coffee mug on top to keep them from flying away again.

"Thank you; I would hate to lose those." Darren said, leaning the broom against the table and collecting the papers, which he proceeded to carefully lay in a nearby drawer.

"Y-yeah…" the human said, smiling weakly as he began sweeping up the glass into a dustpan, which he emptied into a dented metal trashcan.

"The rain isn't letting up at all… Honestly, every other day of the year there doesn't seem to be a drop of moisture…but always…_always_…on this night…" Darren said to himself, looking out the window. He seemed to be in another world entirely.

Kai didn't know what to say, so instead she busied herself looking around for anything else that had been displaced by the lightning crash. Looking toward the bedroom, she saw an old plastic cup that had been knocked out of the dish cabinet. Going over to it, she picked it up and saw that she was standing in front of the makeshift closet. Inside this were a few articles of old clothing; a couple of shirts, a jacket, and two long, white pieces of apparel that she couldn't identify, other than they seemed to be made out of bed sheets.

"Our ceremonial attire."

Darren's voice made Kai jump and almost drop the cup, which she quickly placed back in the cabinet, and looked away, embarrassed.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to…" she trailed off.

"It is fine. The pieces of clothing you were looking are-were-mine and Tristan's improvised ceremonial robes."

"Ceremonial?" Kai asked.

"For certain celebrations and rituals…but mostly for affirmation ceremonies."

"Affirmation? Do you mean like for a…wedding?"

"That is the closest approximation of it, yes. My late partner and I wore these the day we made our bond official. It was a small ceremony; we didn't even have any friends or family attending that night, but he promised me that we'd have the proper ceremony when we returned home. I've kept these robes for almost twenty years now." he said, coming over and gently touching one of the robes.

"So then, Poleepkwa have celebrations like humans?"

"Yes, and for many of the same things; affirmations, family reunions, births… We celebrate all the same aspects of life as humans. I still regret not being able to take food to Tristan's family, though…" he said, his antennae drooping, then saw the look blank look his words had given Kai.

"It is tradition for the submissive partner to bring an offering of food to the family-or closest living relatives-of the one courting him. If the offering is accepted, courtship may continue, if not, it is only proper to try to win the acceptance of the other's family. It is considered very rude to go on with a relationship that the family opposes; and may bring misfortune to all those involved."

"And your partner didn't have any relatives on Earth?"

"Not that we knew of. It always did make me a bit uneasy…perhaps that is why… Never mind; the rain has begun to let up." Darren said.

"Oh, right… I'd best be going; Ami went to the city and may be wondering why I'm not back yet… Will you be all right here? The power's back on, but you don't have any lights."

"I will manage until morning, thank you. Can you get back to your shop alone?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. So…you'll be back at work in the morning?"

"Yes, I will resume work as of tomorrow." he replied, nodding.

Kai nodded and headed for the door, which Darren held open for her.

"Good night, Kai." he said, as she left the house. The door closed when she was out of the Poleepkwa's front yard.

A light drizzle was falling, but the ominous black clouds had turned into several thin grayish wisps in the sky. A few stars were visible, as well as a lovely crescent moon. As she walked through the muddy streets, Kai thought about the documents she'd glimpsed. Reading them had made her feel guilty for invading her friend's privacy, but she just couldn't get them out of her mind.

"_Marriage license, child licenses, death certificate…"_ MNU had made it all seem so official and…trivial. They were just things printed on paper, but they were ten years of life for two individuals… A large portion of Darren's life was there in black and white; likely the happiest and saddest days of it.

"_He was probably remembering their married life when I came over."_ she thought, kicking a nearby rock.

She wondered how it was for them, to have their existence chronicled in pieces of paper, probably stamped by some irritable, overworked bureaucrat in a crowed office amongst dozens of other Poleepkwa who were waiting for similar documents. Though, humans weren't exactly that different; they had papers for everything as well…

"I wish I hadn't looked at those…" the woman thought; all she'd done was invade Darren's privacy and depress the hell out of herself. As she passed what she knew to be James and Erin's home, she thought about the three child registrations she'd seen.

"_Three kids…they might have had three kids."_

The thought of Darren as a parent didn't seem too out-of-place; he did seem to get along well with Angelo and Edgar…

"_But what happened to them? Did they die as children? Stillbirths, maybe?"_ she thought as she unlocked the store's door and hung her jacket on the coat rack.

In any case, she certainly couldn't ask Darren; that would not lead to anything but distrust on his part. Sighing, Kai made her way upstairs and got ready for bed.

"_He'll tell me if and when he's ready."_ she concluded. Vaguely, she heard Ami unlock the door and begin his own nightly ritual.

"Hey, are you sleeping?" the man asked, poking his head into her room.

"Just got into bed, actually; were you out when the power went?" his friend asked, propping herself up on one elbow. Ami was dressed in his usual bedtime attire of a black t-shirt and sweats, and his hair was damp; either from a shower or the rain. In one hand he was holding a toothbrush, in the other, a tube of toothpaste.

"Actually, no; I was going to go to the city, but I started chatting up that lovely security lady by the gate. We talked for awhile, until the lightning hit a transformer and the gate shut down automatically. I was going to call you, but my stupid battery died and I couldn't get through. I was going to tell you not to worry about me being in the city." he explained.

"I'm glad you weren't. I wonder how everyone is. I think Angelo is scared of the dark…"

"Ooh, I feel bad for James and Erin… But we'll have to wait for tomorrow to know anything… Well, night." the man said, and went back to his own room.

Rolling over, Kai sighed again, before finally falling asleep.


	30. Chapter 30

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**As of today, I have an announcement: I will no longer be writing chapters for this or any other story…**

…**that are more than three pages long. Anyone here who has ever written a ten-page chapter knows that it gets boring and time-consuming after awhile, and I have other stuff to work on. Please don't worry; the chapters will keep coming, they'll just be shorter. I originally intended for them to be three pages, but things just happened and they got long.**

**Chapter 30**

"Kai… Hello…? What's up with you lately?" Ami asked, waving a hand in front of his friend's face.

She'd been spacing out quite a bit the past few days, mostly when doing some menial chore or the other around the store.

Darren had returned to work, as promised, the next day after his mourning day. The Poleepkwa had still acted a little depressed on his first day back, but was quickly going back to his old self, even joking with the other employees every now and then.

"What? Oh…nothing." she replied, going back to the task at hand, which was sweeping around in front of the front door. The afternoon crowd of miners had left a large amount of rust-colored soil on the tiled floor, which had to be swept up before it got tracked around worse than it already had been.

"I've known you for almost ten years; you're brooding on something, aren't you?"

"N-no…" she replied, putting on a fake smile. The truth was that she had indeed been brooding. Ever since she'd seen the forms at Darren's place, she just couldn't look at him the same way.

"_He was married…and had kids…or wanted to…"_ she thought to herself, watching as the Poleepkwa hauled a crate of oranges out from the stock room for Alexander to put on the shelves.

"Fine; be emo if you want; but if I find one crappy poem or stupid vampire romance novel, I'm kicking your ass…just the way you did for me in high school!" the man swore, raising his fist as though making an oath to the gods, before wandering away to grab the welcome mat and take it out back to be hosed off.

"_I can't tell him about what I found out… It's none of my business, anyway."_ Kai told herself as she went to get the dustpan.

It was more frustration than depression, really. She found it strange to think of Darren-or any Poleepkwa, for that matter-engaging in marriage or other such behavior. Then again, she'd seen firsthand that they certainly did; Erin and James were more than enough proof of that. They were like any married pair of humans Kai had ever met; arguing over who left a shirt on the floor, reminiscing about when they were courting, uniting to raise their child…

She'd also seen something similar with Byron and Alexander; the same behavior of human couples that were dating seriously. In fact, her nonhuman friends probably had better and more long-lasting relationships than the humans she'd known… She'd once brought this up with Erin, who had told her that his people didn't really view relationships casually, the way that most humans seemed to. Kai, rather than being offended, had to agree.

So then, why was it so hard to think of Darren as having been someone's partner? Because he wasn't human? No; that wasn't it… Perhaps it was that –and Kai hated to admit it-she found it strange that any of her employees really had personal lives outside of their jobs. It was sort of like the way she'd always found it odd to see her teachers shopping at the supermarket or eating at restaurants; they just seemed so out-of-place there. So then, Darren in a home environment, with a…husband…wife…however that worked…was weird.

"Oh!" Kai said out loud, as she was nearly knocked through the air by a sudden impact. Luckily, her rear broke her fall as she landed on the floor.

"Kai! I'm so sorry! Are you all right?"

It was Alexander. He had apparently been carrying a box of canned tuna when he'd bumped into her.

"I'm okay…" she replied, as the larger being quickly set the cans aside to help her up.

"Please, forgive me! I've just been…distracted…lately." he said, picking up his cans again.

"Me too; what is it with you?"

"Well… I suppose it couldn't hurt to reveal it to you… Byron and I have applied for a partnership license." he said quietly.

"Partnership…? You're getting married?" the human asked.

"If the application is approved, then yes! Those aren't' the hardest documents to get; they just take awhile to process, is all. As long as we have two-hundred-fifty rand, we should be able to become legal partners. If we just started living together, neither I nor any children we had would receive any of the benefits that Byron might get from MNU or your shop. MNU doesn't usually recognize Poleepkwa children as belonging to both parents, anyway."

"They just love to make things harder, don't they?" Kai asked, giving a sarcastic smirk.

"Enough about them, though… If we get approved, would you…would you come to our ceremony? It won't be much, but it would mean a great deal to us. It is because of you that we met in the first place, so it wouldn't be fair not to ask you." the grey Poleepkwa said hopefully.

"I'd be honored; when will it be?"

"Assuming that the forms go through in the next two weeks, I'd say that it would be about three weeks from then. Please don't say anything; Byron asked me to keep quiet until we knew for sure." Alexander informed her.

"I won't say anything, and I'll be at the ceremony. Hey, if you want, you can have the ceremony on the roof of the shop; it's got a nice view of the night sky up there." she offered.

"That would be wonderful, thank you." he replied quietly, and went about his work.

"_They're getting married…good for them."_ Kai thought, smiling a little. The two seemed to be very good for each other; both of them had quiet, gentle personalities that complimented each other nicely. They'd probably be very happy together.

Sighing, the human went back to sweeping up the red dust, and sighing again when she saw that the entire area would have to be mopped because of the stuff.

"_I wonder if I should put a "wipe your feet" sign on the door… It'd have to be in English and Poleepkwa, though…" _

"There is clay dust everywhere… Perhaps we should get a sign telling people to wipe their feet." Darren said, coming over to stand beside her.

"I was just thinking that, actually."

"I had the same problem with Tristan. He'd come home from the mines covered in this stuff. He almost ruined one of our good sheets, you know. It's so hard to get this stuff off…it takes hours of scrubbing, and it always gets in between the plates…" the nonhuman said. Kai noticed that he had become a little more comfortable talking about his late partner with her.

"Aw, man!" she thought to herself in frustration. There was no way around this; she had to talk to Darren about the other night. She only hoped that he didn't end up hating her for her snooping, though she couldn't blame her.

"Hey, Darren… I'll need to see you after work, okay?" she said, and went off to get the mop and bucket before he could say anything.


	31. Chapter 31

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Please READ and REVIEW!**

**Chapter 31**

"Kai, what is this about?" Darren asked.

The human had asked her employee to meet her after the workday was done in order to discuss something that had been bothering her for a few days. She only hoped that the Poleepkwa didn't end up hating her before the day was through.

"I just need to talk to you about something." she replied, making sure that no one was around to hear their conversation.

"Are you…firing me?" he asked quietly.

"What? No! I just… It's about the other night...when I came to visit you at your house. Do you remember when the windows broke and the power went out?"

"Of course. I finally managed to make an appointment for someone to come and replace the glass."

"Well… It's about those papers… The ones that scattered everywhere…"

"What about them?"

"Uhm… Well… I kind of…glanced at them…" she admitted, not looking him in the face.

"Oh?" he said.

"Yeah… I know it was wrong…and I really do apologize…but I was wondering… There were three… I mean…" she said, not knowing how to begin.

"You mean the three licenses issued by MNU's Department of Family and Housing that are needed in order for any Poleepkwa to have children?"

"Uhm…yes… I just… I didn't mean to see…but I was wondering…"

"You wondered what happened?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, firstly, while I wish you hadn't read my private papers, I do appreciate your being honest in telling me about it. I suppose that there would be no harm in telling you what you want to know…but you must promise me that you will not repeat such an act in the future. I'm not usually a secretive person, Kai; but I consider everything pertaining to my life with Tristan to be very personal and precious to me. I am sure that you can understand this." he said sternly.

"Of course…and I am truly sorry." she apologized again.

"Very well. I suppose you know already that we Poleepkwa require certain permits in order to have children. Usually, each of these permits is issued based on the order in which the residents of the District apply. Normally, couples are considered first, because of your species' odd notion that two parents make a better home life for the child. The list of applicants is very long, and a fee of five hundred rand is placed upon the individual or couple for every child. Because of this, many Poleepkwa can only afford to have one child. This presents a problem to us, as our culture celebrates large families. It is because of this that there is such a large number of nonhumans wanting children. Tristan and I were among that number, as you have likely already guessed."

Kai nodded in response.

"We… We applied for the licenses…and got them… That was the easy part, believe it or not."

"So…what happened?" the human asked.

"We got our first license…and I soon became pregnant…and then…our child left this world." Darren said simply, running his hand along the counter and looking at a sign advertising snack cakes.

"Do you mean that it was…a stillbirth?"

'It didn't make it that far… Of course, we were both devastated, and we were bumped off the list of acceptable applicants. We waited about two years to apply again, and got another license… That time, I became very sick from being out in the rain and cold at work, so we missed the deadline. The third time, Tristan took on the responsibility of conceiving and laying the egg, and we thought that everything would go well…but the egg never hatched…and we decided not to try anymore. It was about a year after that that Tristan passed away." he continued, still staring out into space, and then turned to Kai.

"Kai, I will now ask you two things-not as my employer, but as my friend. The first thing is: do not feel sorry for me. I have lived with the loss of my children for many years, and have pities myself more than anyone else ever could. I've finally managed to begin moving forward with my life, and I don't need people telling me that they understand what I went through or that things will be better. I am not some miserable creature in need of false sympathies or a pat on the back; I have some pride left after all these years. The second thing I wish to ask you is to please refrain from discussing what I just told you with anyone. My past is just that; mine. I don't want to give the entire Gebeuren something to talk about when they are bored after work. If you will promise to do these things for me, you will have my forgiveness."

"Of course I won't tell anyone, Darren. If you want people to know, _you'll_ tell them… I guess that I'm no better than MNU; sneaking around and invading your privacy like I did…" the human said, feeling truly ashamed of herself for what she'd done.

"Well, while I don't appreciate that you read my papers, I do feel that you did the honorable thing in telling me about it. You respected me enough to admit your wrongdoing; and I am grateful that you felt that you could approach me on this matter. I must admit…it does give me some relief to talk about it with someone. I have had no confidant since my partner, and I have been greatly in need of one. Thank you, Kai, for that. Believe me; I would have been a great deal more upset if this had come back to me on the wind. Now, I trust that I can come back into work tomorrow morning and interact with you as usual?"

"Right… And just to prove it…you're moving around the furniture so Alexander can clean under it. He's been fussing about it for days now." the human responded, grinning slyly.


	32. Chapter 32

**Disclaimer – Don't own it.**

**Chapter 32**

_Two weeks later…_

"It's here! It's here!" Alexander cried, holding a large manila envelope in one hand.

He and Byron had just arrived, hand-in-hand, at work about an hour late, which was unusual for the punctual pair. Ami had made the suggestion that perhaps one of them had slept over at the other's house, but Darren had told him off by saying that MNU didn't normally allow such things, as they suspected the nonhumans might be plotting something.

"What's here? What's going on?" Kai asked, coming out of the bathroom with a toilet brush in one hand.

"It's our response from MNU. An enforcer brought it to us this morning on our way to work." Byron said, breaking away from the younger alien to hang up his jacket.

"Response? Response to what?" Ami asked, appearing from the stock room.

"Go ahead and open it, if you want." Kai said, knowing full well what the enclosed papers were.

"All right... We haven't read them yet, though…" Alexander said, and sat down at the table to open the envelope.

"Alexander, dear… Don't be too disappointed if…" Byron began, but went quiet.

The grey Poleepkwa carefully opened the envelope and took out the enclosed documents and passed them to Byron.

"Can you read this? I still don't fully understand the human language." he admitted, his antennae turning a slightly darker shade of pink.

Byron took the papers and began to read them aloud.

"This document is to confirm that your application for civil partnership status under MNU's Statue 277 of the Nonhuman Civil Privileges Act has been accepted and put on record. Nonhuman persons wishing to obtain an official Civil Partnership Certificate must register at the nearest Department of Housing and Family. Further information may be obtained at your local MNU office…" he read off.

"So then…?" Alexander inquired quietly.

"Your application was accepted; you can get married!" Kai said, smiling.

"We can be affirmed as partners now?" the grey Poleepkwa repeated, as though unsure that he'd heard correctly.

"As soon as we pick up the license, yes. We can do that after work." Byron agreed, carefully putting the papers back into their envelope.

"Congratulations, both of you!" Ami said, patting Byron on the back.

"I am very happy for you as well." Darren said, nodding to the two of them.

"Oh, Byron!" Alexander cried happily, rushing to the older alien, who took him lovingly into his arms.

"What's going on? Why's Alexander crying?" Edgar asked, coming out of the break room, where the pair had been watching a documentary on whales.

"Are you sad about something?" Angelo asked, coming to stand in front of Alexander and look up at him.

"No! This is the best day of my life so far!" Alexander replied, eyes still wet.

"But what's going _on_?" the two little ones asked, in the impatient way children did.

"Alexander and Byron are going to be partners." Kai explained, kneeling down to the children's level.

"Like my daddies?" Edgar asked.

"Yep. They're going to have a ceremony, aren't you?" the human asked, turning to the two.

"Of course! As soon as possible!" Byron said, still holding his soon-to-be partner.

"That's like a party, right?" Angelo inquired. He probably wouldn't be as familiar with the idea of partnership, as he was raised by a single parent.

"Yes, as big a party as will be allowed." Alexander confirmed, laying his head against Byron's shoulder.

"Well, that'll be nice. Can we have something to eat?" Edgar asked.

"I'll get them something. Congratulations again!" Ami said, shaking his head and smiling as he led the two away to the kitchen. Now that they were familiar with Kai and the others, the two were hardly shy about asking for handouts, much to their parents chagrin.

"You can have the ceremony here, if you want." Kai offered. She'd already suggested this to Alexander, but was unsure if Byron knew of it yet.

"Thank you, Kai. There are so many things to do! We have to choose a date, make our robes, write the vows, invite the guests..." Alexander counted off.

"You'll need a few days off after the ceremony to start living together." Kai added. Darren had been telling her about a lot of the traditions of his species, including those involved in matrimony. It turned out that Poleepkwa also had something like a honeymoon after "marriage"; and it was a sort of "getting to know you" period for the new couple in which they learned to coexist together in one home. It was an intimate time, and viewed as sacred by many nonhumans.

"Are you certain that it will be all right?" Alexander asked.

"I'm sure. It'll only be for a few days." their employer assured.

"What time does that MNU office close? You need to get your certificate as soon as you can. They're very particular about things like that." Darren cautioned.

"It says it's open Monday through Friday from nine to five." Byron read off, pulling the forms from their envelope to skim over them.

"Today's Friday! Look, why don't you take the last couple of hours off today; you can get down there and get the papers before the office closes. If I know my bureaucrats, it'll take that long to get to the front of the line." Kai said quickly.

"Can you handle the place?" Alexander asked.

"We'll manage for a few hours; we're not helpless." the human scoffed gently.

"In any case, I'd better get to work. I want to get as much as possible done before we leave." the pale Poleepkwa said, rising from his chair and grabbing a feather duster.

"And I'd best follow his example. Thank you again, Kai." Byron added, grabbing one of the inventory books off a table and heading for the stock room, taking a moment to briefly intertwine his antennae with Alexander's as he passed.

"They're cute." Kai observed, leaning against the table.

"They are about to embark on the most wonderful journey any pair of beings can take together. I wish them as much happiness as I had with Tristan." Darren agreed.

"Do you think you'll ever find another partner?" the human asked.

"No. I could never feel the same way about anyone else. It would not be fair to the other person. It is something I have spent many hours thinking about." the nonhuman replied, then excused himself to go unload some frozen fish.

"Poor guy…" Kai muttered, and went back to her own work.


	33. Chapter 33

**To all the readers of Children of the Cosmos:**

**Dear Readers,**

**Though it is not in my nature to easily admit that I have made a mistake, I feel that I must, on this occasion, do so.**

**I began this story, as I do many, with the fire of a devoted fan, but as I continued to write chapter after chapter, I realized that I had no ready plot for the fic, and thus the story became a chronicle of one day after another in the lives of my characters. I do not know how many of you have ever written a ten page chapter, but it is a tedious undertaking for even the most dedicated of writers; especially when the chapter seems to lead nowhere.**

**During this course, I feel that I have lost a great deal of interest in the story. I feel that the characters are undeveloped, the plot is thin at best, and premise itself is a bit shaky. I have become bored recently, and have been concentrating on another original story, and have neglected to write any chapters of any real worth in the past couple of months.**

**It is for these reasons that I have chosen to discontinue **_**Children of the Cosmos**_**; at least for the time being. I feel that I should re-think the plot, characters, and details before I eventually re-write this story, as I don't believe that it does justice to District 9, a movie of which I am immensely fond.**

**Please do not PM me asking for permission to continue the story, as my characters are special to me, and I don't believe that another person could capture their personalities as I could, as vain as that may sound. **


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